Ascending the Heavens as an Evil God #Chapter 491: Message - Read Ascending the Heavens as an Evil God Chapter 491: Message Online - All Page - FREEWN
The three of them joining forces to trap Alfred while Gu Nan dealt the fatal blow was a tactic that had been agreed upon in advance.
Knowing how Snow God Claudia died and Gu Nan's terrifying assassination ability, it wasn't surprising that Academic Heaven would formulate such a tactic.
Or rather, it was precisely because of Gu Nan's presence that they dared to send four powerful individuals deep into enemy territory in the World of Gods to hunt down this Demon Lord.
As long as they could quickly kill Alfred, then it wouldn't be hard for them to escape unscathed, unless a greater god stepped in.
Under Gu Nan's sword, all of the Demon Lord's laws rapidly melted away like snow in spring, and his life force weakened in the blink of an eye, with most of his vitality severed.
This grand Tier 9 or even higher powerhouse had difficulty withstanding even a single blow from Gu Nan even though the latter was only Tier 8 at the moment.
The Evil God physique itself was stronger than those at the same level, and it was an ability where all the skill points were put into "close combat".
Therefore, once Gu Nan got close to him, let alone Tier 9, even a genuine Tier 10 powerhouse would be seriously wounded by that strike.
"Don't give him a chance to escape!" Although Daoist White Bones was surprised, he was also a powerful figure who slaughtered his way out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, allowing him to react extremely quickly and shout.
The white bones filling up the sky lit up violently, and white flames began to soar above the bone spikes, heading towards Alfred.
Zhang Xuyan and Ye Xing also both struck, knowing that they must not give their opponent a chance to catch his breath.
However, they underestimated the weight of the word "traitor". This Demon Lord didn't even run. His fist, burning with demonic flames, punched Gu Nan directly in the chest with great force.
'Just how much do you hate me?' Gu Nan, who'd always been the more reckless one in fights, saw someone who didn't fear death for the first time in his life. For a split second, he couldn't dodge in time.
The demonic flames from Hell attacked his body, the high temperature searing both his body and mind, yet Gu Nan didn't even bat an eye.
He mercilessly returned the favor with a punch!
Alfred's entire face instantly caved in, as if a deep pit had been dug on his face, while the attacks from the other three finally arrived.
Daoist White Bones' bone fire reached his body, instantly igniting the Demon Lord's soul, and the latter immediately released a mournful scream.
As for Zhang Xuyan and Ye Xing, the pair of martial brothers, they gave Alfred a fatal blow. A character and a brush utterly extinguished the Demon Lord's life force.
Of course, the instant before Alfred's death, Gu Nan rushed in with a punch without hesitation—in the end, players had the most experience stealing kills.
"Let's leave! The high-ranked gods can arrive at any moment!" Zhang Xuyan didn't care about who landed the final blow and immediately shouted upon seeing the Demon Lord die.
Daoist White Bones, on the other hand, glanced at Gu Nan next to him, who was still burning with a blazing demonic flame that had no sign of going out.
He was likewise not slow, having already started flying outside the plane, only he also asked Gu Nan in passing, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Gu Nan laughed, not caring at all that he was about to become a Super Saiyan. "But you all… might not get to leave so easily."
Daoist White Bones was slightly taken aback for a second, then immediately looked back. Sure enough, he saw a divine light already flickering from Fairhaven's direction.
Zhang Xuyan couldn't help gritting his teeth. He didn't expect the gods to react so quickly, as if they were expecting this, so he had no choice but to shout, "Let's split up!"
Everyone was a high-ranking Star Ruler. They might still have a chance to escape if they split up, but if they gathered together, they were bound to be taken out all at once.
Ye Xing still didn't say a word, but he clearly heeded his senior martial brother's instructions and wordlessly fled in a different direction.
But no one expected Gu Nan to suddenly turn around and charge at Fairhaven with a righteous declaration at this very moment.
"You guys go!" Gu Nan shouted at the three of them, "I've been burned with demonic flames and don't have much hope of escape, so let me block the pursuers!"
He had already rushed towards Fairhaven as soon as his words fell, having no intention of discussing this with his three teammates at all.
This made even Zhang Xuyan and Ye Xing pause. 'This is Gu Nan? The same Gu Nan Senior Martial Brother Fang described as despicable and unscrupulous?'
They put themselves in his shoes. Their chances of survival were only slightly lower right now; it wasn't like this was certain death. If they were in Gu Nan's shoes, they certainly wouldn't have made such a choice.
'Hey! The situation hasn't reached that point yet, right?'
'Why do this?'
However, no matter the three's thoughts, it was already too late to stop Gu Nan, so they could only try their best to escape and not waste the opportunity Gu Nan had worked so hard to create.
Four beams of light left in four different directions. Thus, Gu Nan was the only one who came to Fairhaven to face a group of high-ranked gods alone.
There was an error in Zhang Xuyan's intelligence. In addition to a Tier 10 god here, there were not three Tier 9 gods, but… four.
Speaking of which, Gu Nan actually met this Tier 10 powerhouse before; the two could be said to be acquainted.
This powerful figure from the Dark Faction, Skeletal Sage Stevenson, had once assisted Daoist Lingyang in killing the God of Tenebrosity Lewis, and it was precisely during that encounter that he and Gu Nan met.
"It's you?" Stevenson saw Gu Nan's face, then saw the burning demonic flames on his body and understood what happened here.
"It's me," Gu Nan let the demonic flames on him burn freely and responded with a faint smile. He didn't mind chatting a little so that his three teammates could fuck off farther.
Behind the Skeletal Sage were four other Tier 9 gods, all gazing at Gu Nan with indifference, as if they were looking at a corpse.
The laws naturally resisting the demonic flames already exposed Gu Nan's true rank—no matter how one looked at it, it was impossible for a mere Tier 8 who was surrounded by such a powerful lineup to escape.
Stevenson sighed softly. "We're also considered acquaintances… You really killed Alfred?"
Few people knew that because of his acquaintance with Daoist Lingyang, the Skeletal Sage knew some inside information on the Heaven-God Alliance, so he was naturally aware of Gu Nan's relationship with Demon Lord Alfred.
That was why it was even harder for him to comprehend why Gu Nan would kill Alfred.
"It's me," Gu Nan nodded and repeated those two words once again before grinning. "Not only was it me who killed him, but I was also the one who sent you guys the message."
These words caused the gods to be taken aback.historical
The reason they were able to discover the anomaly so quickly and realize Alfred was being attacked was precisely because someone secretly sent them a message informing them of the Demon Lord's assassination.
It's just that the informant seemed to have deliberately delayed the message. By the time they verified the message content, the Demon Lord had already fallen, and they only arrived in time to pursue his murderers.
This matter should only be known to a few higher-ups like them, but the other party was able to hit the nail on the head… Was he really the one who sent that message?
"Did they coerce you into this?" The Skeletal Sage frowned. After thinking about it, he could only come up with this reason.
However, Gu Nan merely shook his head, and in the next instant, his figure suddenly disappeared, reappearing behind a Tier 9 god.
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Gu Nan actually dared to attack first!
Facing one Tier 10 and four Tier 9 enemies, Gu Nan struck without the slightest hesitation, and with an absolutely fatal blow as soon as he attacked.
Since his advancement to Tier 8, this was probably the first time Gu Nan had gone all out.
Even back when he killed Shi Yeyan, it was still a sneak attack from the shadows, which allowed him to kill the Tier 9 Star Ruler with ease.
But it was different this time. Even while facing an unimaginably powerful enemy, he planned to forcefully kill at least two Tier 9 gods!
That was why Gu Nan struck with a lightning-fast blow, the law of shadows erupting in full force to envelop one of his enemies, followed by a barrage of furious close-quarters blows.
When had that god ever seen such a battle before? They tried to counter Gu Nan's punches and kicks with their own laws but never expected those laws to be smashed apart without a hint of delay.
Even Fang Chaoyun's characters could be blasted to pieces by Gu Nan; it really wasn't that hard to shatter laws with his physical body.
After that god took two punches, cracks instantly appeared in his divine body. By the time the god made to turn around and put some distance between them, the law of shadows surrounding the god finally had an effect.
Purely in terms of laws, it was unrealistic—even for Gu Nan—to resist Tier 9 laws with his Tier 8 laws, especially since he was still under attack from outside.
That was why his shadows shattered almost instantly, but Gu Nan's goal had been achieved.
He used laws to stall his opponent for an instant, and that instant was enough for him to deal a fatal blow!
A heavy punch slammed into the enemy's heart, shattering the heart inside his divine body. And at the same time, attacks from the rest of the enemies landed on Gu Nan.
A bone spear coalesced in front of the Skeletal Sage and pierced Gu Nan's abdomen, leaving a huge bleeding wound on him.
However, Gu Nan ignored these attacks, not even paying attention to the injuries on his body, and simply continued hunting down the person in front of him.
One punch, then another!
Gu Nan's fists rained down, throwing dozens of punches in the blink of an eye and actually beating a Tier 9 god to death.
His body, however, was run through by a bone spear and hit by the remaining three's attacks, so it was already riddled with holes.
The demonic flames were still burning, even spontaneously drilling into Gu Nan's body through the open wounds and setting his internal organs aflame as well.
Gu Nan had managed to kill a Tier 9 god at the cost of being heavily injured and dying himself. If he were a normal person, he wouldn't even have the strength to move at this moment.
However, Gu Nan's eyes remained cold as he slowly turned back to look at the still-surviving Skeletal Sage and the other Tier 9 gods, his gaze stony.
For some reason, even though they clearly had the advantage, the several gods still felt like they were targeted by a hunter.
Stevenson said in a heavy voice, "Everyone, scatter. Don't give him the chance to get close… All of his strength is focused on close-quarters combat."
Having personally seen Gu Nan strike, the Skeletal Sage finally understood their enemy's characteristics.
The gods reacted extremely quickly. Some directly disappeared into a pocket dimension while others added a layer of protective laws to ensure their own safety.
Only Stevenson himself remained in front of Gu Nan—as a Tier 10 god, this wasn't enough to intimidate him.
Another bone spear shot out, and this time Gu Nan didn't remain in place. His body instantly transformed into shadows that split into three, simultaneously heading towards the three gods.
The three Tier 9 gods learned their lesson this time, relying on their spatial barriers to disappear again without waiting for Gu Nan to get close. Instead, Gu Nan was hit by two more bone spears as he entered and exited space.
Gu Nan only smiled coldly at this, and without sparing these people another glance, he lunged towards Fairhaven.
This was the frontline command center for the World of Gods!
"No good!" One of the Tier 9 gods couldn't help showing himself to stop Gu Nan. In all likelihood, someone important had been left behind in Fairhaven, so the gods couldn't just sit back and watch Gu Nan run amok there.
Reality proved that only the winner in a head-on battle could have the final say.
The instant that person appeared, Gu Nan suddenly switched his target, once again displaying his outrageous speed.
And so a scene not dissimilar to the previous one reappeared—Gu Nan caught a god and hammered him with attacks while allowing the remaining enemies' strikes to freely hit him.
He looked like he should have died a long time ago, but he was still able to make frenzied attacks, perfectly aware of the key to group fights—it doesn't matter how many enemies there are; just grab someone and beat that person to death.
But that god was also prepared, mobilizing the full power of his law in an attempt to force Gu Nan away while he himself traveled to Fairhaven.
But Gu Nan intended to tank even the Skeletal Sage's attacks, so why would he care about attacks from a Tier 9 god?
A few short minutes later, another god had died at Gu Nan's hands at the cost of having most of his body destroyed. Of his four limbs, only one arm could still move.
Stevenson's expression was frigid, but his heart was already speechless.
He had never seen an opponent fight like this before. Gu Nan was practically using his own life to kill enemies… Why would he go this far?
And after Gu Nan almost lost his life to kill two Tier 9 gods, he finally revealed a satisfied smile as his tattered body crashed down towards Fairhaven.
The three people led by the Skeletal Sage, however, only ever dared to strike across several layers of space, not daring to get close enough to capture him at all.
It was only until Gu Nan completely fell that Stevenson ordered darkly, "All gods, withdraw from Fairhaven and conduct a full search for Gu Nan's whereabouts… I want to see his corpse!"
……
In the current Myriad Heavens, the war between the two worlds was undoubtedly the most important matter, but any news related to it would become a hot topic.
And just when the war was burning up, an earth-shattering piece of information spread throughout the entire Myriad Heavens in the blink of an eye.
Academic Heaven had sent out a team consisting of four high-ranked Star Rulers—an elite assassination squad in the truest sense—to successfully kill Demon Lord Alfred!
And who was this Demon Lord?
Thanks to Academic Heaven's propaganda, bringing demon necromancers onto the battlefield became Alfred's foremost feat, and killing him undoubtedly boosted the morale of the Myriad Heavens!
As the details of the entire assassination operation were revealed to the world bit by bit, the existence of a single person instantly attracted all the attention.
Gu Nan? Why did Gu Nan appear here?
To think he would actually participate in this Great War, even decisively staying behind to give everyone else a chance to escape…
This didn't make sense!historical
Not only did this not match people's usual impression of Gu Nan, it was even more inconsistent with Gu Nan's own position.
How could he—a core member of the Heaven-God Alliance and a fellow who'd always been selfish and unscrupulous—do such a thing?
Academic Heaven did not offer any explanation for this, so a plausible-sounding rumor began to make a clamor.
Academic Heaven must have something they were using against Gu Nan—perhaps even pertaining to his very life—which forced Gu Nan to secretly change sides.
Gu Nan's eventual decision to stay behind to help his teammates escape could also be explained by this.
Almost everyone believed this explanation. The only thing still up for debate was what exactly Academic Heaven was holding over Gu Nan's head, as well as whether or not he was already dead.
Even Fang Chaoyun half-believed the rumors and called Lin Huan in front of him.
"Are you threatening Gu Nan with some kind of secret?"
Lin Huan couldn't help smiling bitterly. "How could your disciple have this ability…? If anything, it's that he secretly helped us, but there was still no need for him to personally stay behind!"
Fang Chaoyun knocked on the table suspiciously. "Then what exactly is he trying to do?"
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What exactly was Gu Nan trying to do? It was unclear even to the top echelons of Academic Heaven—who actually knew the inside story—let alone the outside world.
To the outside world, it was clearly more interesting to speculate on how Academic Heaven had managed to coerce Gu Nan, making him end up in such a wretched situation.
That's right. The final outcome of this fiasco was Gu Nan fighting to the death to stall the higher-ranked gods, killing two Tier 9 gods by himself and subsequently suffering heavy injuries of his own. No one knew whether he was alive or dead.
Although Gu Nan's astral world remained unchanged, the gods' search in Fairhaven continued, proving that Gu Nan hadn't been found yet.
Some believed Gu Nan was already dead and that his astral world was only maintaining the status quo for the time being.
They believed that Gu Nan, an exceptional genius who'd risen to Realm Level in less than a hundred years, was doomed to repeat the fate of many geniuses in history, who would quickly fall after a short-lived glory.
There were also those who believed that Gu Nan wasn't truly dead. Rather, he would be freed from Academic Heaven's control after this incident.
At the same time, he would take advantage of the situation to withdraw from this Great War and also withdraw from the conflict between the Heaven-God Alliance and Academic Heaven, going into seclusion to single-mindedly focus on his cultivation.
Perhaps it would take hundreds or even thousands of years, but in any case, the next time Gu Nan reappeared in public, his cultivation would have reached a completely new height.
There were all kinds of contradicting speculations about Gu Nan, and no consensus could be reached.
The Heaven-God Alliance was equally puzzled, and both the core and normal members wanted to know what had happened to Gu Nan that forced him to attack Alfred.
Zhuangxuan immediately traveled to Extreme Sword Heaven.
As much as he didn't want to disturb Xue Ren during secluded cultivation, the matter this time was already too big for him to resolve alone, so he had to ask Xue Ren for help.
However, Zhuangxuan met someone unexpected when he reached Extreme Sword Heaven.
"You've come." The white-haired old man with a face full of wrinkles was sitting on the old-fashioned chair, staring at Zhuangxuan with a smile.
Only one person could both foresee Zhuangxuan's arrival and enter and leave Extreme Sword Heaven at will—Zi Luo Elder, the fourteenth Unified Dao cultivator of the Myriad Heavens.
Zhuangxuan froze, then hurriedly saluted. "Sir."
"Xue Ren has reached a critical stage; it's inconvenient for him to come out for the time being," Zi Luo Elder explained softly, then grew serious. "I already know about Gu Nan's matter."
Zhuangxuan added, "After the incident, I used all types of methods to investigate, but I didn't find any contact between Gu Nan and Academic Heaven before the Great War."
"You won't find anything." Zi Luo Elder shook his head a little. "If they really are using a weakness of Gu Nan's to coerce him, then you definitely won't be able to find the person who went out to meet him."
Realization flashed through Zhuangxuan's eyes. "Are you saying… that one paid him a visit?"
Right now, the Heaven-God Alliance's forces were spread across the whole Myriad Heavens. If someone from Academic Heaven visited Gu Nan without a trace, it could only have been done by Song Fei himself.
Zi Luo Elder nodded. "And it must have been before the war. Once the Great War starts, it's unlikely that Song Fei will have the energy to focus on this anymore."
Don't be fooled into thinking that the current Great War consisted entirely of battles among mortals that had nothing to do with the Unified Dao figures.
In reality, existences at this level on both sides were bound to be confronting each other in a corner somewhere. No matter which side revealed a weakness first, these Unified Dao powerhouses definitely didn't mind striking.
As long as they were given the slightest bit of time to spare, it would be a calamity for the Star Rulers and gods below them.historical
Zhuangxuan frowned in contemplation, gradually straightening out the entire sequence of events. "That is to say, Song Fei discovered a certain secret of Senior Gu Nan's before the war started and coerced him into aiding Academic Heaven during the war."
"It's just that previously, Senior Gu Nan always hid his identity, all the way until Academic Heaven thought his value had been exhausted, so they used him one last time by ordering him to kill Alfred."
A piece of information suddenly flashed through Zhuangxuan's mind as realization dawned on him, "No wonder we received news from the frontlines earlier that a 'Ghost' specializing in hunting gods without taking their Godheads had appeared. In all likelihood, Senior Gu Nan must be Ghost."
This series of analyses was consistent with each other, and with all the information known at present, this was indeed the closest answer to the truth.
Some regret surfaced on Zi Luo Elder's face as he said, "Gu Nan, what a pity. If there's any secret Academic Heaven can use against Gu Nan… His origin has always been a mystery, so it's most likely related to that."
Many people knew Gu Nan was incomparably familiar with the World of Gods and was most likely the reincarnation of a certain powerhouse from that side, but his exact identity had always remained a mystery.
Song Fei personally traveled to the World of Gods just recently, so it was indeed very likely that he discovered a secret relating to Gu Nan's origins in the process.
Zhuangxuan nodded with a heavy expression. "I will investigate in this direction."
……
Zi Luo Elder and Zhuangxuan's speculations were off the mark, while other people's conjectures were even more off the mark.
Lu Wen, for one, knew very little about Gu Nan's matter, and since he wasn't one of the parties involved, he didn't even want to investigate it; his attention was focused on another matter.
On his desk, report after report clearly showed that there was a group of people donning the guise of "Ghost", looking to kill gods who were by themselves on the battlefield.
Unlike Gu Nan, who only killed gods but didn't take their Godheads, not only did they do the same thing, but they also sent a team to the targeted god's Divine Kingdom to collect faith.
Yes, the reason this group hunted gods was to collect the power of faith in the gods' Divine Kingdoms.
Once a god died, the faith of the believers inside the Divine Kingdom would undoubtedly collapse instantly, so the power of faith drifting aimlessly became this group's best prey.
While others might not know what this group of people were doing, Lu Wen knew very well.
"The power of faith and the power of dreams are both branches of mental power and are two sides of the same coin from the beginning…" Lu Wen put the dossier down and said softly, "Dream Immortal, you really fooled everyone."
……
Just when the entire Myriad Heavens was discussing Gu Nan, the fellow rumored to be dead was leisurely hiding in a small plane, basking in the rare sunlight here.
Gu Nan also didn't know what world this was, only that there were six hours of sunlight in a day here.
Of course, that wasn't the important part. The important part was that he'd come here to heal.
After tanking sustained attacks from a Tier 10 god plus multiple Tier 9 gods, even Gu Nan's Evil God physique was overtaxed and needed constant rest and recuperation.
Only now, over half a month later, did he fully recover.
It was fortunate that the special characteristic of the law of shadows allowed him to escape from Fairhaven without truly being trapped to death in the World of Gods.
And by taking advantage of this large amount of Evil Value credited to him, Gu Nan's Evil Value finally exceeded 130,000, reaching the standard for Tier 10!
The current Gu Nan would never dare show himself in front of greater gods, or else his identity as an Evil God would be seen through instantly. The most important thing he needed to do right now was naturally to reach Tier 10 as soon as possible.
And all Gu Nan was currently missing for Tier 10 was just 1.5 times the points given by Daoist Sect Realm.
"Those people should have had plenty of time to speculate… So then, attack," a small smile appeared as he transmitted a message to his Divine Kingdom.
The last Divine Kingdom War had finally broken out.
Target: Imperial Glory Heaven.
No one expected that after merely half a month of hiding, "hot topic" Gu Nan would reappear with another big move.
He was attacking Imperial Glory Heaven!
As if they were prepared long in advance, the army descended upon Imperial Glory Heaven in an incomparably coordinated manner and immediately started the massacre.
However, people didn't immediately notice this invasion, as Gu Nan's army didn't descend openly, but rather infiltrated in secret.
It turned out that the recent instability inside Imperial Glory Heaven where numerous outstanding heroes rose up simultaneously was all backed by Gu Nan's forces. His army had long since infiltrated the ranks of Imperial Glory Heaven.
Only when the Divine Kingdom War broke out did Gu Nan's army sneak in under the guise of helping the various forces.
By the time Immortal Empress Taisheng discovered all this, the massacre was already mostly complete, and the entire Imperial Glory Heaven was inundated with the misery of living beings, with nine out of ten houses empty.
"Why?" In her palace, Immortal Empress Taisheng glared coldly at Gu Nan, who was standing calmly.
Ever since she realized something was amiss, Gu Nan had already shown himself, obviously prepared for it.
Gu Nan gave a small sigh with a shake of his head. "I was forced."
……
Gu Nan's attack on Imperial Glory Heaven was already a major event that the Myriad Heavens paid great attention to, so this revelation immediately set off waves in the Myriad Heavens.
"Academic Heaven really has extraordinary methods. First, they used Gu Nan as cannon fodder and sent him to his death, and then, when he didn't die from that, they forced him to attack Imperial Glory Heaven instead. They're practically forcing him to fall out with the Heaven-God Alliance!"
"That old man Fang Chaoyun said he wanted to join the Heaven-God Alliance earlier, yet he then turned around and used such underhanded tactics. He really is… Tsk tsk!"
"Old Fang really is petty. To think his personal grudge with Gu Nan caused such a ruckus."
"……"
Discussions arose in all directions. While debating exactly what Academic Heaven had over Gu Nan, people also included their disdain for Fang Chaoyun this time.
Of course, Academic Heaven immediately received news of this as well.
"He was forced! Ha, yeah right!" Fang Chaoyun almost snapped his brush in half, the rage in his heart unable to be quelled.
How could he not know Gu Nan's goal by now? This was clearly an attempt to use Academic Heaven as a scapegoat!
If the many previous events didn't occur, no one would try to decipher Gu Nan's words in depth. Worse, they might even suspect Gu Nan's own intentions.
However, in the context of the Demon Lord incident and the many speculations that took place afterwards, Gu Nan then threw out such a sentence…
Even without naming anyone, the spearhead was undoubtedly pointing directly at Academic Heaven, especially Fang Chaoyun!
With the earlier preconceived impression still fresh in their minds, no one doubted the truth of Gu Nan's words anymore, because Gu Nan's attitude matched their speculations perfectly.
"Master, this must be the Heaven-God Alliance's scheme!" Lin Huan anxiously rushed into Fang Chaoyun's study. "The most urgent matter is to stop Gu Nan from continuing his actions and to show our attitude!"
Lin Huan felt like he finally understood everything now. This was all a play performed by the Heaven-God Alliance and Gu Nan as a counterattack to his master's earlier membership application.
In this play, Gu Nan was merely a pawn acting out a scripted role. The mastermind behind the Heaven-God Alliance controlling everything was the truly terrifying person!
"Why should we stop him?" Fang Chaoyun snorted coldly. "The innocent party has no guilty conscience! We haven't done anything like this. When your Grand Master returns, the truth will naturally come out."
Lin Huan froze, not expecting this old man to be stubborn at a time like this. "Master…"
"You need not say anything else." Fang Chaoyun waved his hand. "Besides, do you think our clarification will make any difference? Our current plan is to keep calm and maintain our rationality."historical
……
Academic Heaven adopted the strategy of "keeping calm", giving no response to the entire "Gu Nan" incident, resolutely maintaining a cold and detached approach.
This near-acquiescent attitude made the ridicule from all sides even louder, but that was all.
After all, they couldn't actually do anything against Academic Heaven. Instead, the Great War still continued in an orderly fashion.
The great war on Gu Nan's side was also underway.
The divine servant army split into multiple units and entered Imperial Glory Heaven in advance in order to immediately inflict a large number of casualties, earning points for Gu Nan while simultaneously weakening Immortal Empress Taisheng's power.
The laws of Imperial Glory Heaven were special, and the strengthening its Star Ruler could receive was mainly manifested in the form of dragon Qi.
Therefore, when the Immortal Empire continuously lost ground under the divine servant army's attack, Immortal Empress Taisheng's power also weakened.
Originally, with her level, she should've been able to easily suppress Gu Nan in her own astral world, but now her continuously weakening power was actually allowing Gu Nan to stabilize the situation for the time being.
"You won't be able to stall for long!" Immortal Empress Taisheng coldly glared at Gu Nan and said darkly.
She didn't care what reasons Gu Nan had. From the moment the latter invaded Imperial Glory Heaven, they became mortal enemies.
Every move of hers contained a terrifying pressure. The mighty forces of heaven and earth all bore down on Gu Nan, as if he was fighting the entire world.
In the end, Immortal Empress Taisheng was still an experienced powerhouse. Though she was weaker than Fang Chaoyun, it wasn't by far.
She even ignored the enemy armies inside her astral world, aiming to crush Gu Nan in one fell swoop!
Even if her dragon Qi was dwindling, she was still confident she could crush Gu Nan quickly.
She was right. If there were no other variables, Gu Nan definitely wouldn't be able to hold on for long.
However, Gu Nan was still struggling to endure because the situation at this moment was already much better than he predicted.
Thanks to Academic Heaven's "valuable assistance", at least the Heaven-God Alliance was still hesitating and hadn't collectively made a move to help Imperial Glory Heaven.
Thus, Gu Nan waited.
He already had enough Evil Value to advance to Tier 10, but he was still short on points, so he might be able to meet the standard after slaughtering most of Imperial Glory Heaven's inhabitants.
But that didn't mean he had to hold out until then.
He could absolutely collect a wave of points and return to his Divine Kingdom to level up to Tier 9 first!
Imperial Empress Taisheng's suppression continued, but due to Gu Nan's prior arrangements, the invasion was far more efficient than expected.
While Gu Nan was enduring the spiritual pressure of heaven and earth, he was still keeping an eye on the number of points shown on the panel.
'Still short 50,000… 30,000… 10,000… The last 5,000!'
'Success!'
As soon as his points reached the Tier 9 mark, Gu Nan's figure shrank as his entire body transformed into shadows that quickly disappeared without a trace.
"Ran away? How sharp!" Immortal Empress Taisheng sneered, but she didn't suspect much.
She originally thought Gu Nan had some special trump card that gave him the courage to invade, but now, it seemed like he merely took advantage of her astral world's internal unrest.
Given the power difference between the two sides, if Gu Nan still didn't leave, it wouldn't be long before he died under the omnipresent pressure.
Of course Immortal Empress Taisheng was aware of Gu Nan's terrifying recovery power, but any ability in this world could be countered, and Gu Nan was naturally no exception.
She aimed to crush him with the weight of heaven and earth, and when the pressure reached a certain critical point, Gu Nan's body would instantly collapse, which was undoubtedly a counter to his regeneration.
She didn't waste much time and immediately went down to the mortal world, personally cleaning up Gu Nan's army.
What puzzled her was that these armies didn't seem to have any intention of retreating. Instead, all of Gu Nan's troops tried to slaughter everything in their way with no regard for their own lives, only seeking to inflict more kills.
But in a place she couldn't see, Gu Nan had long since returned to his Divine Kingdom, opening the interface at the fastest speed in his life. He quickly selected one structure after another and built them outside the Evil God Temple.
"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!" Gu Nan's mind operated quickly, refusing to waste a single second.
One should know that the Divine Kingdom War was still going on right now and that countless divine servants were dying at Immortal Empress Taisheng's hands every second. Right now, every second was precious!
Under Gu Nan's frantic operations, all the structures were constructed at the fastest speed possible, and he then clicked on the advancement button without hesitation.
Tier 9!
How powerful would a Tier 9 Gu Nan be?
To existences like gods or Star Rulers used to the original power system, Gu Nan was like an extra realm that popped out of nowhere.
There was originally an insurmountable chasm between those at Unified Dao and below, but Gu Nan was slowly closing that gap.
Immortal Empress Taisheng, who originally thought that Gu Nan had already withdrawn, felt an inexplicable sense of danger in her heart as she began to clean up the divine servant army and pacify the civil unrest in Imperial Glory Heaven.
Immortal Empress Taisheng was also someone who'd experienced layers of intrigue and power struggles to finally get to her current position, so she never lost her vigilance and immediately reacted.
Immortal Empress Taisheng abruptly dodged to the side, and the terrifying power that crushed heaven and earth reappeared. Only then did a shadow slowly appear in her original place.
"Gu Nan?" Immortal Empress Taisheng glanced over in surprise, shocked at Gu Nan's return and even more shocked at the power he just displayed. "You—"
Bang!
Gu Nan threw a fist, his speed reaching an unbelievable level. The punch headed straight for Immortal Empress Taisheng but hit the barrier in front of her with a muffled sound.
Fear lingered in Immortal Empress Taisheng's heart, while cold sweat had already broken out on her forehead. She thanked the fact that they were in Imperial Glory Heaven and that she could solidify the power of heaven and earth with a single thought.
In terms of the influence of laws on the world, Immortal Empress Taisheng's technique to solidify heaven and earth was definitely one of the best.
But Gu Nan just revealed a cold smile and wordlessly swung another punch.
Bang!
The terrifying force shook Immortal Empress Taisheng's heart as the law barrier created from the solidified power of heaven and earth was struck. She could even feel faint tremors, as if the world itself was trembling from the punch.
"How can…"
Another punch landed, and Immortal Empress Taisheng felt her entire body shaking along with the world. This empress might not have experienced earthquakes before, but now she did.
But she had no time to think about that. She only wanted to know how Gu Nan's power suddenly grew so much.
A secret technique? A special magic treasure? A gift from a Unified Dao bigshot?
Countless possibilities instantly flashed through Immortal Empress Taisheng's head, but none of them could explain the situation in front of her. It wasn't until she tried to get away, her figure dodging upwards, that she realized.
Gu Nan staggered his steps, his entire body instantly transforming into shadows. He emerged above his opponent in the blink of an eye and smashed a vicious punch down on Immortal Empress Taisheng.
This action allowed Immortal Empress Taisheng to finally see Gu Nan's law.
"Heaven Level!" The empress blurted out, her face filled with horror.
'A Star Ruler who just advanced to Realm Level not long ago is now advancing again a few short years later, stepping into Heaven Level in one fell swoop… Is such a thing even possible?'
This completely defied common sense!
Immortal Empress Taisheng stared at Gu Nan like he was a monster. This was no longer a matter of genius or talent—such a thing was simply impossible!historical
When did he have time to accumulate the resources needed for his astral world, and how did he recruit enough experts for his astral world? The comprehension of laws might be dependent on one's talent, but how could all these things be achieved overnight?
The advancement of one's astral world had to be done one step at a time; there was no such thing as ascending to heaven in one fell swoop.
But Gu Nan did it, which Immortal Empress Taisheng found utterly incomprehensible.
With her thoughts distracted for a split second, her control over the laws of heaven and earth seemed to slip slightly. The perceptive Gu Nan instantly grasped this moment of weakness and thrust out the sword of shadows.
Thunk!
The longsword pierced Immortal Empress Taisheng's chest, and pain that she hadn't experienced in a long time made her come back to her senses.
After all, she was a figure who distinguished herself from hundreds of successors and ultimately took over a major astral world. Immortal Empress Taisheng's immediate reaction was so decisive that even Gu Nan admired it.
Without any hesitation, she stood up as the laws of heaven and earth suddenly exploded. She actually detonated the power of her astral world.
The terrifying explosion directly sent Gu Nan flying. He immediately lost control over Immortal Empress Taisheng, which gave the latter the chance to escape.
After realizing defeat was imminent, Immortal Empress Taisheng even abandoned her own astral world, risking everything to create an escape route.
This kind of decisiveness and courage was rare even among men.
"Quite decisive."
Seeing that it would be hard to find further traces of Immortal Empress Taisheng, Gu Nan simply stopped pursuing her. The most urgent matter was harvesting points.
In this Divine Kingdom War, Gu Nan had given the order to "kill with all your power regardless of casualties", so even though the harvesting was extremely efficient, the losses were also quite heavy.
Under such orders, it was needless to say that the divine servants—which were created entirely by points—and even the apostles were constantly dying.
Over half of Gu Nan's player army had already died. If not for the fact that these people could be resurrected, Gu Nan's earlier move would've been tantamount to squandering money in vain.
Of course, Gu Nan wouldn't bat an eye even if he did lose the entire player army.
After harvesting this wave of points, Gu Nan's goals had all been accomplished. He only needed to return to the Divine Kingdom to advance to Tier 10, and then he could start preparing for the Second Round.
At that time, he would undoubtedly be able to fly as high as the sky would allow, completely disregarding the Divine Kingdom—anyhow, everything needed to wait until after the Second Round.
Pre- and post-Second Round were two completely different worlds.
The entire First Round was centered around the Divine Kingdom gameplay, but once the Second Round was completed, players would go back to the gameplay that revolved around themselves.
Of course, there were also people who remained addicted to the Divine Kingdom playstyle for their entire lives and were unable to extricate themselves from their obsessive management, but Gu Nan was clearly not this kind of person.
Gu Nan simply stayed inside Imperial Glory Heaven, watching the divine servant army slaughter all inhabitants, then issued an order.
……
"Lord Shana, we really must thank you guys this time," inside the Imperial City, a handsome-looking youth sincerely thanked Shana.
This time, an alliance of eighteen vassal states joined hands for a crusade against the muddleheaded royal family in order to purge corruption. They agreed that whoever broke into the Imperial City first would gain the merit of protecting the country and take over the continent.
"General Zhang is too polite." Shana seemed like a native of the Myriad Heavens; outsiders couldn't tell that she had grown up in the World of Gods at all.
After exchanging a few more pleasantries with Shana, this young General Zhang was ready to bring his own troops into the Imperial Palace and invited Shana to accompany him in passing.
General Zhang undoubtedly held great fondness for this powerful woman who seemed to have descended from the sky and helped him wholeheartedly.
He had long decided that when the world was at peace, he would definitely take her as his empress.
"Miss Shana, would you like to accompany me inside the palace for a visit?" General Zhang asked with a smile.
Shana smiled noncommittally and was about to respond when her expression froze slightly before she continued smiling. "General Zhang, I don't think that's necessary anymore."
"Hm?"
Before General Zhang could understand what she meant, he saw Shana flatly issue an order behind her, "Attack."
The next second, Shana's left hand instantly transformed into a red ray of light that pierced General Zhang's stomach.
Blood gushed out crazily, leaving behind only General Zhang's lifeless body and the look of disbelief in his eyes.
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After first destroying Immortal Empress Taisheng's imperial forces, Gu Nan's various troops that infiltrated the ranks of the rebel forces would instantly turn on their former allies, harvesting points with the highest efficiency.
This strategy was set by Gu Nan a long time ago. Now, it was just a matter of implementing it perfectly.
Because the imperial forces accounted for the majority of Imperial Glory Heaven's power, Gu Nan's harvesting mission was already mostly complete. Just the finishing touches were left.
His points shot up at a speed visible to the naked eye. Tier 10 was already close at hand. He just needed to kill the remaining "evil rebels"… Yup, and also avenge Immortal Empress Taisheng in passing.
'No need to thank me, we're all members of the Heaven-God Alliance.'
Gu Nan said silently in his heart, and right at this time, a figure slowly emerged before him.
With Gu Nan's current realm, only one group could approach without him noticing it beforehand—a Unified Dao existence.
"Didn't think you'd be the first to come." Gu Nan looked at the newcomer with a shrug.
Gu Nan wouldn't have been surprised if either Zi Luo Elder or Song Fei came on behalf of the Heaven-God Alliance and Academic Heaven respectively—even though those two shouldn't have much time to spare at the moment.
However, neither of them showed up. Instead, the first to come was Lu Wen.
"I also didn't expect this." Lu Wen said with a smile, "So you really aren't human."
After his Evil Value reached the Tier 10 standard and his own level reached Tier 9, the aura of the Evil God physique could no longer be hidden.
Normal people might not be able to sense anything, but in the eyes of a Unified Dao cultivator like Lu Wen, the secretive nature in the depths of Gu Nan's soul was by no means something a human could possess.historical
Gu Nan replied noncommittally, "You came to ask about Duan Wenqi's whereabouts?"
Lu Wen, however, shook his head. "I know you won't answer even if I ask. Since he's already fallen into your hands, so be it."
But he then added, "Someone is returning. If you can escape with your life, you can come to Clockwork Heaven to exchange one life for another."
After those words fell, Lu Wen's figure instantly disappeared, not giving Gu Nan a chance to respond.
Gu Nan, on the other hand, cast a strange glance at the spot where Lu Wen disappeared. He originally planned to return Old Duan as soon as Lu Wen asked.
In any case, he got to vent after locking Duan Wenqi up for several years, so there was no use keeping him there any longer. In fact, Duan Wenqi's imprisonment meant the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb couldn't be used for anyone else.
So Gu Nan couldn't help shaking his head. "Why do youngsters try to look cool?"
……
Perhaps because Lu Wen had already become the representative or because the others were busy with their affairs, no second Unified Dao figure showed up after that, which allowed Gu Nan to finally harvest enough points in peace.
"Finally done." Gu Nan also couldn't help letting out a long breath as he sat comfortably in the Evil God Temple, methodically constructing one structure after another.
From the time he leveled up to Tier 8 and resolved to ascend to the heavens in one fell swoop, Gu Nan had never stopped to rest. This really was more tiring than pulling an all-nighter to do an extra-long quest chain in his past life.
He incited war between the two worlds, personally hunted down gods, seized the opportunity to pin some blame on Academic Heaven, then finally took advantage of the situation to attack Imperial Glory Heaven. Only then was he able to fulfill the advancement conditions.
As one structure after another was built and upgraded, the "Advancement" button on Gu Nan's panel finally lit up again.
Gu Nan decisively chose to advance without any hesitation.
As a result, the Evil God Temple expanded once more, taking up more room.
The top part of the Evil God Temple even began to emit a faint light, and under countless people's watchful eyes, a brand new floor started to emerge.
The second floor of the Evil God Temple!
Gu Nan wasn't surprised by this. After all, this wasn't his first time, and the way to clear the Second Round was indeed related to the Evil God Temple's second floor.
However, the Second Round shouldn't be rushed; there were still some conditions that needed to be met. Previously, Gu Nan could only lie dormant and wait because his strength was insufficient, but it was time to make his move now.
"Teacher, someone just entered the Divine Kingdom," Yan Xiaoxiao's voice rang out from the side as a petite figure in a white dress reappeared in front of Gu Nan.
As Gu Nan's level soared, the rank of the Divine Kingdom was also rapidly changing. However, this change wouldn't happen overnight and was a gradual process.
"Who?" Since Yan Xiaoxiao purposely showed up to remind Gu Nan, he wasn't in a hurry to check and instead asked her.
Yan Xiaoxiao tapped her finger, pulling up a holographic screen in front of Gu Nan. The figure shown in it was none other than Fang Chaoyun's disciple, Lin Huan.
This extremely sci-fi method was obviously something Yan Xiaoxiao just recently learned.
"Should I expel him?" Yan Xiaoxiao asked softly, "He seems to be very angry and wants to confront Teacher."
Gu Nan thought about it and replied, "Too troublesome. Just kill him, he has no use anymore."
……
"I want to see Gu Nan!" Lin Huan sat in one of the Divine Kingdom's side halls and said to Red Tail with a stern expression, "He dares to pour dirty water on our heads, yet he doesn't dare to come out and confront me face to face?"
Red Tail had a lot of experience dealing with these kinds of situations and responded without a trace of concern, "I already sent someone to report to His Lordship. Mr. Lin can wait patiently."
Lin Huan sat down with a dark expression but had a sneer on his face. "Gu Nan and the Heaven-God Alliance only know these petty tricks. Once the Great War is over and Grand Master returns, there will be plenty of time to settle the score with you guys!"
However, Red Tail was still smiling, not taking it to heart as she continued chatting with him.
Lin Huan realized he couldn't scare the other party, so he stopped talking and sat alone with a stiff expression.
He was here to use the power of Academic Heaven to pressure Gu Nan into coming forward to clear up the misunderstanding.
But Lin Huan wasn't really worried about his own safety. Even an existence like Xue Ren wouldn't dare kill a disciple of Academic Heaven for no reason, and Gu Nan's position in the Heaven-God Alliance was far below the former.
A few moments later, Yan Xiaoxiao's figure suddenly appeared and landed next to Red Tail.
Before Red Tail could speak, Yan Xiaoxiao had already smiled at Lin Huan and then said, "Teacher's orders: send him on his way."
Before Lin Huan could register her words, he suddenly felt his heart sink inexplicably, and a warm sensation started coming from his neck.
A fountain of blood spurted out crazily from his carotid aorta, looking as if Lin Huan's carotid artery had burst from an explosive rise in blood pressure.
Only when Lin Huan's corpse fell to the ground, motionless, did Red Tail slowly open her mouth, "Does this mean His Lordship is no longer afraid of that one? Could it be…?"
Yan Xiaoxiao gently shook her head. "Teacher has yet to take that step. However, his current realm can truly be called unprecedented."
……
In Academic Heaven, Fang Chaoyun was still diligently handling matters related to the Great War. A large amount of information came from the frontlines everyday, all of which he had to handle.
Suddenly, a disciple stumbled in and cried, "Master! Master… Senior Martial Brother Lin's soul lantern went out!"
Snap!
Fang Chaoyun's hand tightened, and the battered brush in his hand finally snapped.
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Tier 10 was a completely different experience from before.
At this moment, Gu Nan was genuinely at Tier 10 in terms of Evil Value, points, and the corresponding cultivation realm. The aura unique to an Evil God had started to emerge.
What exactly was the aura of an Evil God? It was hard to describe. It could be roughly understood as something fundamentally different from normal gods.
It was like the difference between robots and humans. Even if they had the exact same appearance, humans could still tell that something seemed off.
This difference might be reflected in each detail, and once all those details accumulated, the person involved would have a strong feeling: 'This fellow isn't the same species as me.'
Red Tail felt this way right now.
She came to report statistics on Imperial Glory Heaven's invasion to Gu Nan, but she felt like something was strange when she saw Gu Nan sitting on the throne.
Gu Nan was clearly sitting there very normally, yet she still felt that the other party seemed very abstract, as if his entire figure was distorted and eerie, or he might turn into a monster any moment.
Red Tail actually felt a little speechless merely standing in front of Gu Nan.
Gu Nan just smiled calmly. Of course he knew about this. This was always the case after players reached higher levels in the game.
Especially after the Second Round, their Evil God aura would leak out uncontrollably.
Yan Xiaoxiao, who had seen Gu Nan before, was already the spirit of a world, so she didn't have as strong a reaction. Red Tail, on the other hand, was the first normal living creature to meet the Tier 10 Gu Nan.
In fact, other Unified Dao cultivators were in similar situations, because Unified Dao existences were already considered a new type of lifeform altogether.
The difference was that normal Unified Dao figures could keep their aura in check and make themselves appear no different from normal humans. But as an Evil God, Gu Nan was so different from living beings that he couldn't hide it at all.
"You'll get used to it." Gu Nan stood up from the throne and slowly walked up to Red Tail.
Once he got closer, Gu Nan's strange aura seemed to fade a little, and his whole person appeared more corporeal.
Red Tail tried her best to calm down and finally understood why Yan Xiaoxiao said he was at an "an unprecedented realm", then continued to report on the war.
After completing the war report, Red Tail thought for a while and added, "My Lord, since we killed Lin Huan, the ten years time limit…"
"No longer matters." Gu Nan replied with a wave of his hand, "From now on, produce every possible type of divine servant; we won't focus on a specific type anymore. Order the Cabinet to focus on internal development from now on."
Red Tail was slightly taken aback, not expecting Gu Nan to suddenly make such a decision.
'Has the Divine Kingdom's development already reached his expectations?'
After Red Tail left, Gu Nan made huge adjustments to the Divine Kingdom's development direction, then walked up to the second floor of the Evil God Temple alone.historical
Tier 10 wasn't Gu Nan's ultimate goal.
Reaching Tier 10 only meant he had the power to protect himself now. Even against greater gods, there would still be some room to fight back as long as he was inside his Divine Kingdom.
But Gu Nan knew that he would still have zero advantage if a Unified Dao powerhouse was determined to oppose him.
There was a huge chasm between pre- and post-Unified Dao. Even if Gu Nan filled this chasm, the gap between him and Unified Dao Realm still existed.
"Since the Divine Kingdom is in the Myriad Heavens, it hasn't been discovered by that side's greater gods for the time being, but I still need to finish the Second Round as soon as possible…" Gu Nan still felt a sense of urgency.
The second floor of the Evil God Temple was a very strange existence. To get there, one could only walk up step by step from the spiral staircase behind the throne.
However, this staircase was mind-numbingly long if one only used their legs.
It was impossible to reach the second floor if the player's body left the staircase even for a second, and the player would have to leave the staircase and enter again.
Players who could see the Evil God Temple's second floor were all experts who reached Tier 10, and most of them had various bizarre teleportation skills. But if they used any spatial displacement abilities here, they might be stuck in this place for the rest of their lives.
Players finally verified the existence of this small rule after many tries.
So of course an experienced player like Gu Nan wouldn't be baffled by this. He walked up the stairway for almost a quarter of an hour before he actually reached the Evil God Temple's second floor.
As the second floor that only appears once the Divine Kingdom reaches Tier 10, only after reaching this floor can one truly realize how strange this place is.
If the Evil God Temple was a normal-looking palace, then the second floor was a completely separate dimension.
This place looked like an empty starry sky. After Gu Nan walked up here, he felt as if he was in a sea of stars. There were swirling galaxies as far as the eye could see, and he could pluck the stars if he just reached out his hand.
If someone came here for the first time, just this scenery alone would be enough to entrance them for a long time.
But Gu Nan seemed to feel nothing from this scenery. He walked forward step by step until he reached the end of the space. Placed there was a bloody skull.
"Blood sacrifice? I'm quite lucky," Gu Nan said to himself with a satisfied look.
Although the game made the Second Round all mysterious, in the end, it was still part of the game and just required players to clear a class change mission.
However, every Second Round mission the player will encounter upon reaching Tier 10 is random. Only when the player personally walked to the Evil God Temple's second floor would they see the specific mission content.
The bloody skull Gu Nan saw meant a blood sacrifice mission. Out of all the class change missions, it wasn't considered the easiest, but it was also relatively less complicated.
That was what Gu Nan liked the most right now. After all, he didn't fear a difficult mission, but instead feared wasting too much time and someone discovering his nature as an Evil God.
Most of the blood sacrifice missions required players to kill a target and blood sacrifice the target's entire Divine Kingdom. The entire plane would be destroyed, leaving nothing behind.
Because it was the Second Round mission, this target would usually be at Tier 10, and they wouldn't be an ordinary Tier 10—the target would either be very powerful or someone with a deep background.
Of course, the actual implementation method, as well as the specific target of the blood sacrifice, will be specified by the blood sacrifice mission itself.
Gu Nan stretched out his hand and pressed it on the bloody skull, already considering which gods could possibly become the blood sacrifice target.
Rolensia was originally a possibility. She met the characteristic of "powerful", but she was a greater god now, so she wouldn't be the target of the blood sacrifice.
Lewis, who died at the hands of Daoist Lingyang, wasn't very strong. On the other hand, the Skeletal Sage who appeared earlier had a chance of being the target because he had a good relationship with a greater god.
But Gu Nan's eyes almost popped out of his head when a line of text appeared above the bloody skull.
Graceful Heaven, Fang Chaoyun.
Fang Chaoyun was furious.
This old man had always been short-tempered. In the beginning, Song Fei wanted him to cultivate Confucianism to refine his temperament, but clearly, it wasn't very effective.
"Senior Martial Brother Fang, you… Master isn't here right now. If you also abandon your duties here, the war will be delayed!" A young man stood in front of Fang Chaoyun, earnestly trying to persuade him.
This young man named Tang Jie was also one of Song Fei's disciples.historical
Among Song Fei's disciples, Tang Jie couldn't be said to be very eye-catching. He wasn't as talented as their youngest martial brother Lu Yang, and his strength couldn't compare with Fang Chaoyun and Shi Yeyan. He hadn't even reached Realm Level yet.
However, Tang Jie was quite famous and popular because he was an all-rounder who could do anything.
There seemed to be nothing in the world that Tang Jie couldn't learn, but once he got started, he would encounter all kinds of difficulties if he wanted to delve deeper into the subject, never able to achieve mastery.
Therefore, his martial brothers always asked Tang Jie to help whenever they were busy. This was also the case right now.
It's just that the matter Fang Chaoyun asked Tang Jie to help with was a bit too important, so important that not even Tang Jie himself dared to accept—Fang Chaoyun wanted him to supervise the Great War between the two worlds.
"You can do it." Fang Chaoyun glared furiously, his tone leaving no room for objection, "Gu Nan bullied me like this. If I can't make him pay a price, how will I have any face to see Master?"
Fang Chaoyun received news of Lin Huan's death immediately and also knew where he died.
So without another word, this old man planned to leave the Great War to Tang Jie while he himself returned to Graceful Heaven to mobilize all his troops to attack… Mm, No Name Change til Unified Dao Realm.
Fang Chaoyun did have a clear-cut separation between public and private affairs. Lin Huan's death at Gu Nan's hands was a personal grudge, so he didn't want to delay the Great War, let alone abuse his authority for personal gain by commanding unrelated personnel to attack Gu Nan.
He just wanted to hand over the authority in his hands and have his own Graceful Heaven take action.
Fang Chaoyun's heart was indeed filled with rage, but he wasn't carried away by his anger.
He'd already suffered a loss in Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom before and was fully aware that Gu Nan would be particularly powerful with the blessing of his astral world, so he decided to attack Gu Nan's astral world directly.
As long as he destroyed Gu Nan's astral world or even weakened the degree of its blessing, Fang Chaoyun was sure he could suppress the opponent.
Tang Jie, however, was extremely anxious. He was just a normal, weak Star Ruler, yet why did Academic Heaven choose him of all people for this? But Fang Chaoyun told him that Academic Heaven had already decided on Tang Jie as this Great War's commander-in-chief.
So Tang Jie had no choice but to say, "In that case, I hope Senior Martial Brother can resolve your personal matter as soon as possible."
"Junior Martial Brother can rest assured." A cold glint flashed through Fang Chaoyun's eyes. "It won't take long."
……
Once again, Gu Nan proved through practice that the Myriad Heavens and the World of Gods were the same in essence.
He was also affected by preconceptions and subconsciously believed that the target of the Second Round's blood sacrifice should be a god, but he didn't expect the name "Fang Chaoyun" to appear instead.
"Looks like the Second Round's mission selection is determined based on the location of the Evil God Temple?" Gu Nan rubbed his chin, thinking about the implications behind this.
In other words, the Evil God Temple inside the Divine Kingdom was indeed a corporeal existence that could truly reflect this world.
But putting aside the element of being from the Myriad Heavens, Fang Chaoyun was indeed a very suitable target.
He was quite strong—the Dao of Confucianism had exceedingly diverse abilities but just wasn't suited for head-on battles. Moreover, he had a rare background.
The total number of direct disciples of Unified Dao cultivators wasn't actually much higher than the number of Unified Dao existences themselves.
At this moment, Yan Xiaoxiao's voice suddenly rang out in Gu Nan's heart, "Teacher, Xue Ren is here."
……
Gu Nan and Xue Ren were sitting across from each other in a small pavilion in the Divine Kingdom, while Gu Nan was leisurely pouring himself tea.
"I thought you were in serious isolated cultivation and wouldn't come out even if the sky fell down," Gu Nan chatted with a smile, as if everything else never happened.
Xue Ren chuckled. "If I still didn't come out, the Heaven-God Alliance would break up."
"Isn't there still that old man?" Gu Nan casually replied while drinking tea.
Xue Ren just shook his head, having no intention of elaborating. Instead, he said in a heavy voice, "Lingyang told me what happened over there… This whole matter was planned by you. You'd also planned to attack Imperial Glory Heaven long in advance, didn't you?"
Gu Nan glanced up at him and asked unhurriedly, "So what if I did?"
Seeing that Gu Nan didn't deny it, Xue Ren finally revealed a look of regret and slowly stood up.
He took out the longsword from his waist and said in a low voice, "Originally, I shouldn't be furthering internal strife in the face of an approaching catastrophe, but I must give Taisheng an account. One strike. After one strike, you and the Heaven-God Alliance will go their separate ways."
Gu Nan didn't even budge but revealed a smile of interest. "Looks like you didn't forcibly cut short your isolated cultivation. You made a breakthrough?"
There was neither sadness nor joy on Xue Ren's face. "Just in time to test my breakthrough on you."
As he finished speaking, the longsword in Xue Ren's hand already thrust out. Anyone familiar with Xue Ren would definitely be stunned.
Because this strike actually contained an unprecedentedly fierce sword intent!
Everyone knew that Xue Ren had always been a representative of the new swordsmanship, while the existence of sword intent was one of the biggest symbols of traditional swordsmanship.
Perhaps Xue Ren also cultivated sword intent back when he was younger, but this sword intent was so intense that even a high-level Star Ruler who single-mindedly cultivated swordsmanship might not be able to possess it!
In order to ascend to Unified Dao in ten years, Xue Ren finally put aside his stubbornness and tried to integrate the new and old swordsmanship styles to find a new path of his own.
But to be able to cultivate his sword intent from zero to this point in less than two years, he was indeed the strongest swordsman in the Myriad Heavens!
The sword thrust heading for Gu Nan looked no different from a mortal's attack. It moved slowly and leisurely without any law fluctuations.
Only the person directly facing this strike could feel the countless calculations behind the sword's path.
No matter which direction Gu Nan moved in or what response he made, the sword would immediately change accordingly. Because all variations in the sword's path had already been accounted for by Xue Ren.
This sure-hit sword was Xue Ren's sword path.
But in front of Gu Nan, this was akin to trying to charm the blind with one's good looks.
Because Gu Nan didn't budge at all and allowed the longsword to freely pierce his chest. The terrifying sword intent burst out and shattered all his internal organs, bones, and veins in an instant.
"You…" Xue Ren looked surprised. Gu Nan didn't even use the power of his astral world. Could it be that he wanted to die?
Could it be that Academic Heaven really was coercing him into doing their bidding, but Gu Nan didn't want to help the enemy, so he chose to die at Xue Ren's hands?
However, Xue Ren quickly discarded this thought. Because he then saw Gu Nan slowly get up, and his body, which was originally soft due to bone loss, was quickly returning to its original shape.
"Still a bit short of Unified Dao." Gu Nan said blandly, "Now then, why don't you also take one punch from me?"
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Not only was Xue Ren's sword impossible to dodge, but after he dual-cultivated traditional swordsmanship, the strengthening from the sword intent was even more effective. Xue Ren could be said to be the strongest he'd ever been in his life.
However, Gu Nan acted like nothing happened. The parts of his body damaged by the sword intent quickly recovered, and he punched straight out.
Xue Ren reacted at light speed. The sword flickered again, and the signature wave sword instantly shot out, enveloping Gu Nan's fist like mist.
After all, he was also a powerful Star Ruler who stood at the pinnacle of the Myriad Heavens, second only to Unified Dao existences. Xue Ren had never feared anyone.
Even though Gu Nan once borrowed the power of his astral world to injure the similarly Tier 10 Fang Chaoyun, how could Fang Chaoyun compare to Xue Ren?
The best swordsman in the Myriad Heavens, the person closest to Unified Dao, the founder of a new branch of swordsmanship… Xue Ren had earned many titles, but Fang Chaoyun only had one—"Song Fei's disciple".
However, Xue Ren and Fang Chaoyun did share one similarity, which was that neither had a good method to deal with Gu Nan's punch.
Be it wave motion or matter, all the laws instantly shattered when the sword cloud collided with Gu Nan's punch, immediately destroying all sword intent.
Under the crushing might of pure strength, even the most exalted and mysterious of laws could no longer exist.
Gu Nan's punch broke the sword cloud without hindrance and hit Xue Ren's chest.
Xue Ren was like a normal person being hit by a cannonball. Droplets of blood so fine they resembled mist exploded from his chest. Blood even sprayed out from behind Xue Ren. Countless pieces of blood and flesh slowly rained down, filling the air with a strange fragrance.
Given Xue Ren's current realm, his flesh, blood, and bones were all treasures, but now they were being squandered away like nothing.
But how could Xue Ren have energy to care about that?
Without bothering to say anything, his entire body turned into sword energy and quickly shot out of Gu Nan's astral world.
"Huh, he didn't die?" Gu Nan glanced in that direction, then looked at the flesh and blood scattered on the ground with a shrug.
Since Xue Ren didn't die from this punch, Gu Nan couldn't be bothered to pursue him. There was no benefit in killing Xue Ren. On the contrary, his identity would be exposed even faster if he caused a big fuss.
He still had to deal with Fang Chaoyun, and it would be best to kill him in a single blow. There was no benefit in exposing his power in advance.
The result seemed to be no different from what Xue Ren originally said. The two sides went their separate ways after one strike—but this result may not necessarily be what Xue Ren wanted.
……
Extreme Sword Heaven.
Immortal Empress Taisheng sat there, no longer as high-spirited as her earlier years, but she had yet to completely lose her vigor.
In the end, she decisively abandoned her astral world in exchange for her own escape. After fleeing, she immediately came to Extreme Sword Heaven, still holding onto the hope of returning to Imperial Glory Heaven.
There were two people next to her. One was Zhuangxuan, who came here again after hearing the news, and the other was naturally Zi Luo Elder.
After seeing Zi Luo Elder here and knowing that Xue Ren was still in seclusion, she originally thought there was no hope of regaining her astral world for the time being. Unexpectedly, Xue Ren came out of isolated cultivation at this critical moment.
After hearing what transpired recently, Xue Ren didn't say much and immediately rushed towards Gu Nan's astral world.
Next… They all saw what happened next.
Xue Ren didn't hide his whereabouts from them. Through Xue Ren's existence, they saw what just transpired in Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom.
Immortal Empress Taisheng fell silent and never brought up revenge again. She even felt a little lucky—if she hadn't fled so quickly… Though Xue Ren could tank that punch, she didn't have that ability.
After a long silence, Zhuangxuan coughed lightly and said, "If Senior Xue Ren's life is not in danger, then the most important matter right now is to invite Senior Gu Nan back into the Heaven-God Alliance."
There was only calm indifference in his eyes as he said this, lacking any emotion.
Xue Ren once said Zhuangxuan and his master, Daoist Lingyang, were the same type of person. This wasn't entirely accurate, because Taoist Lingyang still had friends, relatives, and a social network, while Zhuangxuan had none.
He was like the calmest bystander, always making the most rational decision.
No one knew how long it would take for Xue Ren to recover after receiving that punch. Instead, Gu Nan became the target they had to win over.
No matter the method, he ascended from Realm Level to Heaven Level in the blink of an eye and grew to the point where he could easily injure Xue Ren. As long as Gu Nan was already standing in this position, he was worth fighting for.
The Heaven-God Alliance needed another Unified Dao member. This was the entire organization's most urgent goal at the moment.
But as the party involved, Immortal Empress Taisheng had just lost her entire astral world, so she obviously couldn't be so open-minded.
"He must have used some kind of secret technique… Unified Dao is no child's play!" She stood up and spoke quickly, as if she wanted to refute Zhuangxuan with all her strength, "How long has it been since Gu Nan started cultivating? Not even two hundred years! How can he have the resources and accumulation needed for Unified Dao?"
Zhuangxuan's expression remained unchanged as he calmly answered, "Someone who started cultivating less than two hundred years ago, yet can already easily defeat Senior Xue Ren, is also unprecedented."
Immortal Empress Taisheng's expression slowly darkened. Of course she knew that at least the organization wouldn't suffer any losses if they could win over Gu Nan… But how could she swallow her anger?
"Gu Nan killed Alfred and openly attacked Imperial Glory Heaven. We still want to keep such a person in the organization?" Immortal Empress Taisheng said scornfully, "If that's the case, why not let Fang Chaoyun join too?"
Zhuangxuan, however, remained expressionless. "If Senior Gu Nan rejects our proposal and Senior Xue Ren's injury doesn't look good, accepting Fang Chaoyun is not out of the question."
"You…" Immortal Empress Taisheng didn't know what to say anymore, so she could only glare at him coldly. "You and Gu Nan really are the same. You're both equally unscrupulous!"
Regarding this pure denunciation, Zhuang Xuan said nothing, as if these words were just a cool breeze.
Zi Luo Elder also had no expression and just watched the two argue from the side. Only now did he slowly speak, "Let's not argue about this for now. Xue Ren is back."
As soon as he finished, the other two saw Xue Ren's figure materialize, standing right in front of them.
Xue Ren's face was pale, and a portion of his chest seemed to be missing, leaving a large, gaping hole that could be seen through. Half of his heart was completely destroyed, but the other half was still beating.historical
"Gu Nan…" Xue Ren staggered over and sat down on the chair with difficulty. "He's not human."
The first words Xue Ren spoke after arriving stunned the three of them. Because the fight happened inside Gu Nan's astral world, not even Zi Luo Elder noticed Gu Nan's strange aura.
Only Xue Ren, who personally met Gu Nan, discovered the strange aura on Gu Nan's body.
"Could he… really be a Nine Abyss Heavenly Demon?" Immortal Empress Taisheng knew Gu Nan well and recalled this rumor.
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When Gu Nan first debuted—more accurately, when he first gained fame in the Myriad Heavens—some people speculated that he was the reincarnation of a Nine Abyss Heavenly Demon.
It wasn't impossible for a Heavenly Demon to reincarnate into a human. Let alone humans, they could even reincarnate into monsters, ghosts, etc.
For example, the Heavenly Demon that Milky Way Heaven was rumored to be hiding was reincarnated as a zombie and then cultivated all the way to his current level.
However, the level that Heavenly Demon ultimately reached was far inferior to Gu Nan's current level.
After hearing Xue Ren's words, Immortal Empress Taisheng compared the series of strange happenings surrounding Gu Nan and felt that this conjecture was very possible.
Because before that Heavenly Demon returned to his previous life's cultivation realm, his strength also advanced at an alarming rate. It was only because he exhibited the characteristics of a Heavenly Demon very early on that his identity was discovered, and he was finally forced to hide in Milky Way Heaven.
If Gu Nan was an even more powerful Heavenly Demon in his past life—perhaps even a Unified Dao Realm Heavenly Demon—then wouldn't this explain everything?
The only difference was that Gu Nan's upper limit of strength was a little higher, and his identity would also be exposed much later than the other Heavenly Demon.
Xue Ren paused slightly when he heard the words "Nine Abyss Heavenly Demon", seemingly also recalling the similarities between the two, but then shook his head.
"He gives me the feeling of an ancient evil… but not a Heavenly Demon," Xue Ren said with certainty.
It wasn't like he'd never seen a Nine Abyss Heavenly Demon before. The difference between the two was so large that he wouldn't mistake one for the other.
Immortal Empress Taisheng fell silent again. She believed in Xue Ren's judgment. After all, he was the only one who met Gu Nan in person after his advancement.
Zhuangxuan chimed in from the side, "Since Senior Gu Nan comes from the World of Gods, might he be that side's equivalent of a Heavenly Demon?"
His words silenced the room, and Xue Ren suddenly turned to look at him. "That's very possible!"
"So this is his biggest secret. No wonder he made a special trip to hunt gods; no wonder he was able to write a hunting manual on gods." Zi Luo Elder sighed, as if all his suspicions were answered at this moment.
They all knew the nature of Heavenly Demons, creatures whose cultivation path was inherently opposed to that of cultivators.
If Gu Nan was the equivalent of that in the World of Gods, then that explained why he would hunt gods. The existence of the God Hunting Manual must come from his experience in his previous life.
"Maybe if we investigate the history of the World of Gods, we can find the identity of Senior Gu Nan's past life," Zhuangxuan withdrew his gaze and suggested in a soft voice.
"Of course we need to investigate," Zi Luo Elder replied, then looked at Xue Ren. "How are your injuries?"
"I won't die." Xue Ren smiled wryly and pointed to his chest. "But now I really must enter isolated cultivation and not come out until Unified Dao."
"A silver lining," Zi Luo Elder remarked with a smile.
Xue Ren was obsessed with the new branch of swordsmanship, but he slacked off a little in his own cultivation—or rather, he could never calm his heart enough to wholeheartedly cultivate. Now that he suffered such heavy injuries, perhaps he could calm down and cultivate in earnest.
Gu Nan's punch came so fast that Zi Luo Elder didn't even have time to intervene. And after seeing that Xue Ren's life wasn't in danger, he didn't want to waste his limited opportunity to attack.
Back when he re-ascended to Unified Dao, he suffered a blow from Song Fei's ruler. Although he did forcibly break through to Unified Dao in the end, he could only last for ten years at most. Every time he attacked, he had to exhaust some strength, which was equivalent to shortening his already short lifespan.
Zhuangxuan stood up. "Since Senior Xue Ren still needs to rest, this humble Daoist won't disturb you."
"Are you going to find Gu Nan?" Immortal Empress Taisheng saw through Zhuangxuan's intention at a glance and choked. "He just wounded Xue Ren, yet you're already approaching him so impatiently. Aren't you a little too eager?"
Zhuangxuan slowly turned his head to look directly at her. "Besides the three of us, no one else knows about that previous fight. My trip will not affect the organization's dignity. As for this humble Daoist's personal dignity… it matters not."
……
In fact, what Zhuangxuan said about no one else knowing about the battle between Gu Nan and Xue Ren wasn't entirely accurate.
Someone had been paying attention to Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom recently and was powerful enough to see all this, and he happened to witness that scene.
"He's become stronger again." Long Ling'er blinked. She said this calmly, without any emotional fluctuation in her eyes.
At first, Gu Nan was still on the same level as her and even had to expend a lot of effort to deal with her, but in the blink of an eye, he was already able to injure Xue Ren.
Lu Wen lightly tapped his finger on the table, deep in thought.
"He's still one step short." After a long time, Lu Wen finally spoke, "Fang Chaoyun is about to attack Gu Nan, but he hasn't completely lost his rationality yet… Go help him."
"Okay," Long Ling'er responded. Her figure instantly rose into the sky, turning into a giant dragon that gave a loud roar, then disappeared into the void in the blink of an eye.
……
Ever since he learned that Graceful Heaven was the target of the blood sacrifice, Gu Nan immediately started preparations.
There were some differences between a blood sacrifice and earning points. Using divine servants to kill people will always result in a few survivors escaping; it's impossible to kill all inhabitants.
In other words, there were only so many divine servants, and it was impossible to search every nook and cranny of an astral world. The enemies weren't fools who'd just stand there waiting to be killed.
Therefore, to blood sacrifice an entire plane, one must rely on the legendary Blood Sacrifice Formation.
It would take a while to collect the items and materials required to set up the formation. Some of them needed to be manufactured by Gu Nan through the Divine Kingdom's structures, while others needed to be collected from outside.
The Divine Kingdom part was easy. Anyhow, he still had a lot of extra points left after capturing Imperial Glory Heaven, which was enough to rebuild the divine servant army.
But while Red Tail's staff exhausted their efforts to find some of the materials that needed to be collected from outside, Gu Nan still wasn't satisfied with their efficiency.
This situation lasted for nearly half a month, and then, as if someone gifted him a pillow right when he fell asleep, Zhuangxuan visited the Divine Kingdom.
"This humble Daoist came to invite Senior back to the Heaven-God Alliance…" Zhuangxuan sat before Gu Nan, still following Daoist Lingyang's style of address and calling himself the junior.
Gu Nan cut straight to the chase, "I need a batch of materials. Can the Heaven-God Alliance provide them?"
Zhuangxuan didn't even ask what materials he wanted and immediately agreed, "As long as Senior rejoins and the materials can be found in the organization, they will naturally be provided to Senior as soon as possible."
Gu Nan patted him on the shoulder with a smile. "Young'un, what are you talking about? When did I ever leave the organization? I've always been a member of the Heaven-God Alliance!"
Zhuangxuan had already seen Gu Nan's utter lack of a bottom line, or maybe he was naturally expressionless, so he calmly responded, "Senior, please provide me with a list of materials. This humble Daoist will definitely do my best to gather them."
Gu Nan naturally already had a list and directly gave a copy to Zhuangxuan. However, after remembering there was still a Heaven-God Alliance he could use, he had other thoughts.
Blood sacrificing the entire Graceful Heaven wasn't something that could be accomplished overnight. Just the early stages' preparation alone contained a lot of tedious work.
Now that there was free labor, was there any reason not to use it?
So Gu Nan added, "Provide me with another group of people?"
Zhuangxuan readily agreed and even took the initiative to help with planning, "Will Senior wage another war against an astral world? If it's a normal astral world, we—"
"I want to attack Graceful Heaven."
Zhuangxuan, who'd always looked expressionless, finally stopped talking this time and stared at Gu Nan speechlessly for a long time.historical
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Zhuangxuan felt that no one with a normal train of thought would choose to attack Graceful Heaven at this time.
To be precise, as long as Academic Heaven didn't fall, no time was a good time to attack Graceful Heaven.
Zhuangxuan rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache. He started to doubt whether it was the right decision to win over Gu Nan again—such a war fanatic might lead the organization into a ditch.
Even if another Unified Dao cultivator emerged in the Heaven-God Alliance and Zi Luo Elder got a chance to catch his breath, there was still no possibility of a full-scale war between the Heaven-God Alliance and Academic Heaven.
This wasn't a matter of strength. It was extremely difficult for Unified Dao cultivators to truly kill each other, especially in a one-on-one fight.
And if they couldn't kill the opponent, rashly starting a war would only cause the forces under both sides to suffer a devastating blow.
Therefore, struggles between Unified Dao existences were often restrained. They were either only limited to the Unified Dao cultivators themselves, or each side sent their own representatives to fight.
Countless thoughts passed through his mind in an instant, but Zhuangxuan's final answer was, "We will fully cooperate."
He knew that Gu Nan was very dangerous, but he also knew that he had no choice. If Gu Nan wasn't won over, the organization would very likely disband before the ten-year time limit.historical
And if the situation wasn't as expected, then at worst, he could expel Gu Nan, which would similarly clean out the Heaven-God Alliance.
……
Just as Gu Nan received a satisfactory answer, Fang Chaoyun was constantly sending spies into Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom to investigate.
Fang Chaoyun was a very old Star Ruler. Before becoming a Star Ruler, he also wasn't the kind of guy who immersed himself in cultivation. Instead, he'd been both a general and a prime minister before and was very good at handling political and military affairs.
Once the Great War between the two worlds started, Song Fei was busy dealing with the greater gods. The reason Fang Chaoyun became responsible for much of the Great War wasn't only because he was Song Fei's disciple, but also because he really did have this ability.
If Fang Chaoyun had any weaknesses, besides being irritable and short-tempered by nature, it was probably that his personal combat power wasn't top-tier.
Ever since he started learning from Song Fei, what he learned was "fighting against ten thousand people", so what he hated the most were fellows like Xue Ren and Gu Nan who focused all their strength on themselves.
When Fang Chaoyun decided to attack Gu Nan, his actions became more organized.
The mobilization of troops and analysis of intelligence were all conducted in an extremely orderly fashion.
This was also thanks to the Great War between the two worlds, which allowed the personnel in Graceful Heaven to get sufficient experience adapting to the rhythm of war. Now that Fang Chaoyun gave an order, it was just a matter of changing targets.
Compared with the enormous World of Gods, Gu Nan's "No Name Change til Unified Dao" Realm really was pitifully small.
Once the gigantic Graceful Heaven mobilized, it really wouldn't be hard to find out the details of Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom.
Fang Chaoyun wasn't wrong to think that, but he soon encountered difficulties. Almost all the staff sent as spies reported the same situation to him—this astral world refused entry to all outsiders.
Old Fang almost coughed out blood.
What kind of eccentric astral world would make such a rule? Other Star Rulers desperately wished for a large population to gather and wished for all the Void Cutters to be permanently stationed in their own astral worlds, because these represent an astral world's power.
Rejecting entry to outsiders was akin to isolating oneself from the entire world.
"Actually, we've been investigating Gu Nan's astral world ever since its location was exposed." A spy reported, "Starting from then… this policy has always existed, but it didn't seem to be so strict at that time."
Back then, Gu Nan had been acting unbridled for a while, relying on the fact that nobody knew where his astral world was. So his astral world immediately received a lot of attention when its coordinates were exposed to the public, and many forces secretly sent spies inside.
Of course Graceful Heaven did something similar, which gave them this bizarre result.
Fang Chaoyun frowned heavily when he heard this. If Gu Nan had been implementing such a policy ever since that year, that meant it wasn't a temporary decision, let alone caused by this incident.
"You said the enforcement of the policy wasn't strict in the beginning?" Fang Chaoyun then asked.
"Yes." The spy quickly nodded. "Gu Nan's ascension speed is too fast, and his management of the astral world cannot keep up with this speed. Some of our people sneaked inside at the beginning without being discovered."
He paused for a moment, and when Fang Chaoyun frowned without responding, he continued, "But ever since it became a Realm Level astral world, sneaking in has been difficult… As long as Void Cutters enter, they will almost certainly be quickly discovered and expelled."
"Are they investigating all the Void Cutters who came from outside?" Fang Chaoyun's expression looked a little grave.
"No…" the spy hesitated. "They don't even bother with any investigations. Anyone who's found will be immediately killed."
……
"Recently, three groups of people have been discovered trying to sneak in." Yan Xiaoxiao materialized a human form and sat on the table in front of Gu Nan. "I selected a few for interrogation, but the result was… we couldn't learn anything."
"Learning nothing is also a kind of result." Gu Nan put down the document in his hand and rubbed his temples.
The fact that interrogation was ineffective meant the other party must have received extremely strict training. And fellows who could endure under Yan Xiaoxiao's hands were undoubtedly from a much more powerful organization.
"They're probably from Graceful Heaven. Recently, there's news that they're gathering and mobilizing a new round of troops. It doesn't look like they're simply going to the frontline battlefield."
Although Graceful Heaven used the frontline war as a cover-up, discerning people could still tell something was off.
On the other hand, Lin Huan had died in Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom, yet Graceful Heaven didn't respond at all. This in itself was abnormal.
"Teacher, do you want to send a small group of troops to harass them?" Yan Xiaoxiao suggested from the side.
Following Gu Nan's level up, the Divine Kingdom also advanced to Tier 10. The ascension of the plane itself was a slow process. As the spirit of the Divine Kingdom, Yan Xiaoxiao was the first to benefit from it.
Her current avatar looked like a corporeal person, no longer a projection.
Moreover, this kind of avatar was inexhaustible and had no roots. If she wanted, she could even create hundreds of avatars on the spot and line them up into a phalanx formation.
"Go ahead." Gu Nan nodded. "There's no need to notify Red Tail. You can just send the divine servants directly."
Divine servants were the most cost-effective cannon fodder. As long as they could kill enough enemies to recoup the cost of production, the points earned could be used to produce more divine servants, while the enemy's casualties wouldn't be restored.
Yan Xiaoxiao immediately agreed, licking her lips eagerly, her eyes shining with something called excitement.
The more she fused with the Divine Kingdom, the higher her authority over the creatures in the Divine Kingdom. This was especially true for divine servants produced by structures—she could directly command them.
Sending a military expedition to Graceful Heaven was undoubtedly very cathartic for Yan Xiaoxiao, who hadn't been on the battlefield for a long time.
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Old Fang couldn't swallow his anger. Graceful Heaven couldn't hide its plan to start a war from Gu Nan.
Or rather, it was impossible for a powerful astral world like Graceful Heaven to completely conceal a major event that affected all its inhabitants.
Not everyone was like Gu Nan, whose army was entirely composed of emotionless divine servants. For normal Star Rulers, their soldiers were also their astral world's inhabitants.
However, he couldn't possibly allow Graceful Heaven to deploy its army so easily. Gu Nan needed to disrupt Graceful Heaven's operations as much as possible to give people from the Heaven-God Alliance time to set up the Blood Sacrifice Formation.
Although the Blood Sacrifice Formation sounded awfully imposing, its effect was very simple. To put it bluntly, it kills all living creatures inside the formation and absorbs all their power, including their flesh, blood, and souls.
The level of the formation only affected the slaughter efficiency and the degree to which it could gather power.historical
Graceful Heaven was not a Unified Dao level plane, so almost no Star Ruler existences were inside. Void Cutters were its top experts.
Therefore, the Blood Sacrifice Formation prepared by the Heaven-God Alliance would not have much problem in killing inhabitants. The real difficulty with formation setup was how to simultaneously activate it across the entire Graceful Heaven and gather all the power together.
"Our plan is to set up 999 sub-formations, and each sub-formation will consist of 365 regional formations…"
Zhuangxuan stood before Gu Nan, patiently explaining the plan for the Blood Sacrifice Formation.
It was impossible to hide his goal from the Heaven-God Alliance. As soon as the list of materials Gu Nan requested entered Zhuangxuan's hands, the latter knew what he was planning to do.
Zhuangxuan was quite well prepared. Not only did he prepare a plan for the Blood Sacrifice Formation, he even mapped out the detailed locations where each sub-formation should be placed.
Of course, he couldn't possibly accomplish all this alone. He must have mobilized the huge manpower and material resources of the Heaven-God Alliance, and many members even lost their lives in the process.
Gu Nan couldn't help nodding with satisfaction after he read the plan given by Zhuangxuan.
This young man's work was indeed very reassuring. It could be described as almost watertight. Even Gu Nan can't find any obvious flaws in the plan.
As for the specific blood sacrifice method, although it wasn't directly given by the crimson skull, Gu Nan himself knew a few, while Zhuangxuan used a method unique to the Myriad Heavens this time.
This method possessed traces of an ancient demonic sect's influence, but at the same time, it had also been improved using modern techniques. Both its efficiency and concealment ability were satisfactory.
"Graceful Heaven is about to wage a war soon. Your people can take the opportunity to sneak in and set up the formation," Gu Nan said to Zhuangxuan.
Zhuangxuan quickly replied, "Starting a war is indeed conducive to sneaking in to set up the formation, but I hope Senior will not inadvertently alert the enemy."
Setting up a grand formation covering the entire Graceful Heaven was obviously not something that could be done quickly. The war must start as early as possible, but it also had to drag on for as long as possible, the longer the better.
Therefore, Gu Nan couldn't scare Old Fang away from the get-go, or else it wouldn't be so easy to set up the formation if Fang Chaoyun decided to hide inside Graceful Heaven.
Gu Nan also knew this and immediately nodded in agreement. At this moment, Yan Xiaoxiao's figure suddenly appeared, her expression grave.
"Graceful Heaven made their move."
……
"Master! Master!" A middle-aged Confucian scholar followed behind Fang Chaoyun and urged anxiously, "Several units haven't returned yet in response to our call for reinforcements, so we must not move our troops right now! If we cannot defeat the enemy in one blow, we will inevitably be dragged into a stalemate—"
Fang Chaoyun didn't even look back and coldly interrupted, "Gu Nan sent troops to harass my border and assassins to kill six of my disciples. Tell me, how can I endure this?!"
The middle-aged Confucian scholar still tried to dissuade him, "There's something fishy about the deaths of my several martial brothers. It may not be Gu Nan's doing! Besides, even if it was him, he wants to provoke us into starting a war in advance. Master, you must not fall into his trap!"
There were too many people in this world who knew how to scheme. It was impossible to hide one's schemes from everyone, which was why the majority of effective strategies were overt schemes.
This was the situation Fang Chaoyun faced. Even if he knew it was a trap and that a third party might be manipulating matters behind the scenes, he must still give an account for the deaths of his six disciples!
"I've made up my mind. You need not say more." Old Fang said coldly, "Depart immediately and capture the target within three days! "
……
In fact, full-scale wars rarely occurred between planes above Realm Level.
On one hand, there was rarely a huge gap in the two sides' strength, and on the other hand, it was also because mobilizing an army was very difficult.
Void Cutters could freely travel to and from the major planes, but the armies under them couldn't do the same and could only rely on large-scale spatial transmission methods.
But these methods were exceptionally expensive. Often, an enormous sum of money would've already been spent before even managing to kill a single enemy in the war.
War was fought with money—this statement was always true.
But Graceful Heaven didn't care about money this time, and neither did Fang Chaoyun. He just wanted to completely destroy Gu Nan's astral world.
Fang Chaoyun even hired a group of suicide squad members from other planes at a high price to serve as the first wave of troops to reduce casualties to his own forcees.
What Fang Chaoyun didn't expect was that Gu Nan's ability to resist this invasion was unexpectedly strong.
Gu Nan himself didn't even show up, but his astral world resolutely adopted the strategy of a "scorched earth policy" that left nothing useful for the invaders while all the residents sought shelter inside the core city-states.
Rather, there was no need to deliberately seek shelter because Gu Nan's earlier management of his Divine Kingdom completely forbade people from going outside. Everyone must live inside a city-state.
"You were already prepared, huh?" Fang Chaoyun didn't personally enter Gu Nan's astral world and just stayed outside to observe. He was waiting for the moment when Gu Nan couldn't help but intervene.
But judging from the current situation, it might be a very long time before this happens.
The enemy army seemed to be extremely organized, and the guards in each city-state were just right to make their offensive unsustainable.
But once they started to mobilize their troops, the other side would also adjust immediately.
Distance was completely meaningless to Void Cutters.
Fang Chaoyun was sitting in a military tent. Placed in front of him was an extremely finely crafted sand table that could even be operated to accurately display the terrain of various locations.
"Since the opponent has reconnaissance methods that are difficult to detect… let's not play with tactics anymore and concentrate all our strength to attack a single city!"
……
"It's impossible for them to defeat me through the mobilization of troops inside this Divine Kingdom," Yan Xiaoxiao calmly stated, as if she was relating an insignificant matter.
"So they can only fight head-on." Gu Nan said casually, "We have hundreds of city-states and plenty of time to play hide-and-seek with him."
Yan Xiaoxiao revealed a smile. "Zhuangxuan's people have arrived. Teacher, aren't you departing soon?"
"Of course I will." Gu Nan then said, "Send another suicide squad out. This time, we'll light a fire in Old Fang's backyard first."
"Okay." Yan Xiaoxiao naturally had no reason to object. "But there's one more person you need to meet before you depart."
"Who?"
"Qinghe Realm, Zhong Qinghe."
Gu Nan never met Zhong Qinghe before.
At least in his memory, he'd never personally met this Realm Level Star Ruler, although they did have some interactions in the past.
When Gu Nan first came up with the idea of a player army, it was because he took Zhong Die to the World of Gods and then used her as a test subject, making such an attempt for the first time.
Zhong Die was Zhong Qinghe's daughter. Later, because of her identity, people from Qinghe Realm tried to take Zhong Die back, but the outcome was self-explanatory.
But none of that mattered, because although the usefulness of the player army later on made it completely worth developing, Zhong Die no longer had any use.
Gu Nan still kept her simply because he didn't want the vampire clan's route to spread.
Zhong Qinghe's sudden visit surprised Gu Nan a little. Of course, with his current strength, he was no longer worried about a Tier 7 or 8 Star Ruler and could be as steady as Mt. Tai.
Just moments later, Zhong Qinghe was brought to Gu Nan. He didn't even go see his daughter.
"Lord Gu Nan." Zhong Qinghe looked very good-natured and was always smiling, resembling an ordinary merchant more than a high-and-mighty Star Ruler.
"Something the matter?" Gu Nan asked directly without any intention of wasting time with him.
Zhong Qinghe didn't take it personally and just smiled calmly. "I heard Your Excellency has a conflict with Mr. Fang… Do you need help?"
"How do you want to help?" Gu Nan asked noncommittally.
"In terms of personally fighting, I certainly don't have the ability to intervene in the fight between you two." Zhong Qinghe continued, "But Your Excellency's astral world is new. I'm afraid you lack the tools to attack and defend cities?"
It wasn't until he heard this sentence that the word "arms dealer" popped into Gu Nan's head!
Gu Nan initially didn't expect for Zhong Qinghe, a powerful Star Ruler, to actually come in person to do this kind of business. However, Zhong Qinghe established his astral world through business. This was probably his cultivation path; there was nothing wrong with it.
Having said that, the assistance Zhong Qinghe proposed was also very crafty, leaving Gu Nan no reason to refuse.
Gu Nan was only able to stall the war in his Divine Kingdom by relying on the player army, which gathered a large number of Void Cutters to maintain the stalemate with high-end combat power.
But Fang Chaoyun had already become aware of Yan Xiaoxiao's existence and was determined to gather his strength and conquer the city-states one by one. The upcoming battles would most likely be siege battles.
Although there were many city-states in the Divine Kingdom, the abundance—or lack thereof—of materials determined how long each city-state could hold out for.
Exactly as Zhong Qinghe said, Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom had always developed in isolation and didn't have much reserves in this regard.
"You know I have no money," Gu Nan responded with a smile, but his gaze was already locked onto Zhong Qinghe. Regardless of whether he had the money or not, he definitely wanted those weapons.
Zhong Qinghe seemed to have expected this. "Your Excellency, you don't need to pay money. I will send the goods here myself."historical
"The price?"
Zhong Qinghe answered with a smile, "If Your Excellency loses this war, then I naturally won't ask for anything. But if Your Excellency defeats Mr. Fang… please give this humble one a slice of the pie."
Gu Nan stared at him for a long time, then finally nodded. "Deal."
……
Zhong Qinghe was indeed a qualified businessman. The price he proposed gave people no reason to refuse.
Gu Nan had reason to believe that he must've made a similar bet on Fang Chaoyun as well, and what he gave Old Fang was also something Fang Chaoyun urgently needed.
No matter which side won in the end, Zhong Qinghe may not be called the biggest winner, but he most certainly wouldn't be the loser. Victory in a war between planes was enough for all participants to earn a lot of money.
"Zhong Qinghe is good at playing both sides. This humble Daoist also tried to win him over several times, but he rejected every time," Zhuangxuan also gave a similar evaluation after learning of this incident.
The matter with Zhong Qinghe was quickly forgotten by Gu Nan. Right now, he was setting foot onto Graceful Heaven.
Gu Nan didn't come alone this time. Instead, he came on a starship with a group of Heaven-God Alliance members.
With Gu Nan's current level, direct entry was akin to lighting a huge light bulb in the dark, unable to hide himself at all.
But under the cover of the starship, it wouldn't be as easy to discover him after he entered Graceful Heaven. After all, existences like Yan Xiaoxiao were rare, and Graceful Heaven obviously didn't have such a luxury.
Zhuangxuan also came. He needed to personally oversee the setup of the Blood Sacrifice Formation.
"You made a very decisive bet." Gu Nan glanced at Zhuangxuan.
Personally participating in this matter was tantamount to becoming mortal enemies with Academic Heaven, with no chance of turning back. Furthermore, if things went wrong, since the Heaven-God Alliance could abandon Gu Nan, they could naturally also abandon him, Zhuangxuan.
Zhuangxuan's face remained impassive as he said truthfully, "This is the best way to prevent Senior from not acknowledging this matter afterwards."
Gu Nan laughed involuntarily.
In fact, Zhuangxuan was absolutely right. Accepting someone else's help and then reneging on his promise once he received that help was definitely something Gu Nan would do.
There were all too many players who took money from NPCs without fulfilling their promises.
Instead, Zhuangxuan chose to completely side with Gu Nan. If Gu Nan decided to fall out with him and refuse to acknowledge Zhuangxuan's help afterwards, the loss of reputation would be way too serious.
This is equivalent to adding restrictions to the mission: giving up the mission will result in a significant loss of map reputation. As a result, the cost of falling out suddenly increased.
Seeing Zhuangxuan's extreme "sincerity", Gu Nan stopped mentioning it and quickly devoted himself to setting up the Blood Sacrifice Formation.
Blood sacrifice wasn't as simple as drawing a formation on the ground and throwing in a couple of energy sources.
Completing the targeted blood sacrifice required the formation itself to have high power, and in order to correctly gather and transport the power obtained from the blood sacrifice, a close link between the sub-formations was required.
One of the later steps required Gu Nan to finish the setup of each sub-formation himself, and he must provide the source of blood sacrifice, which was the crimson skull.
If not even that skull participated in the formation, how could the formation transmit power?
Actual formation setup wasn't a game where the power could be transported to any desired location.
Moreover, Old Fang wasn't a fool. While he went to the frontlines himself, how could he not have anyone guarding his home?
Normally, no other Star Rulers were in Graceful Heaven, but during this critical wartime, it was completely normal for Fang Chaoyun to ask a few martial brothers to help.
It would be hard to fully avoid attracting Graceful Heaven's attention as they continued setting up the Blood Sacrifice Formation. When that happens, Gu Nan will need to take action.
So Fang Chaoyun and Gu Nan both ran to each other's astral worlds with their own schemes. One began to openly attack cities, while the other secretly planned to "destroy the world."
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Since Fang Chaoyun himself cultivated Confucianism and Daoism, Graceful Heaven was also a plane dominated by Confucianism and Daoism.
This place could be said to be the most perfect interpretation of the phrase "only those who study well do well".
Be it cultivation progress or actual power, it was impossible for martial artists and cultivators to compare with Confucian students. Confucian students were the absolute mainstream here.
Graceful Heaven was very large, but it wasn't divided into numerous regions like many planes. Instead, it was a unified and coordinated whole.
Fang Chaoyun did not divide his astral world into multiple levels of administrative districts. Instead, he built academies of all levels in various places, and the academies controlled regions corresponding to their levels.
In short, he assigned the responsibilities of the people's government to educational institutions that were originally only responsible for teaching.
"The 999 sub-formations we selected are all located in academies at the provincial examination level, but it's not as easy to select locations for the smaller regional formations," Zhuangxuan held a map as he explained to Gu Nan in detail.
He paused for a moment, then continued, "So I suggest we travel to all the sub-formation eyes to leave the aura of the blood sacrifice source there, then let the people below select the specific locations for the regional formations."
"Alright." Gu Nan naturally wasn't against it. "Where do we start?"
"Graceful Academy."
……
"Damn it! Why do they have Heavenly Fire Heavy Crossbows?"
Inside Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom, the vanguard from Graceful Heaven paid a heavy price for their carelessness when they attacked their first city-state.
A young Confucian scholar looked livid as he kept comforting himself.
"We couldn't have expected this variable; it's not because my abilities are lacking… Who knew they'd even have Heaven Level divine weapons?"
Xu Yubin was the commander of the vanguard army. He'd always been fond of the art of war. Now that he finally got an opportunity to lead an army, he thought he could conquer a city-state for his first victory, but he didn't expect…
Without even getting to see the enemy, the Heavenly Fire Heavy Crossbows took out most of his troops.
As a genuine Heaven Level divine weapon, the Heavenly Fire Heavy Crossbow's technology wasn't primitive at all.
Ballistic calibration, automatic lock-on, precision strike, shock wave deflection… Everything modern missiles had and all the features they didn't have were integrated into this weapon. It's just a matter of whether it would be used.
There were many planes in the Myriad Heavens with advanced technology. The reason science couldn't play a role in high-level battles was merely because metaphysical technology was more powerful—it was as simple as that.
"General, this battle can't be fought!" A subordinate ran to Xu Yubin and said anxiously.
"Not only does the enemy have Heavenly Fire Heavy Crossbows, but they also have a Dark Light Barrier prepared. Our elite team can't even sneak in!"
Xu Yubin felt like he was on the verge of collapse.
If a frontal attack failed, the next best method was to send an elite team into the city to coordinate with outside forces. After all, such a crudely constructed city-state was no different from a backwater village in Xu Yubin's eyes.
'But why does such a backwater village have a Dark Light Barrier?'
This was as absurd as a small mountain village having twenty subway lines.
'Just this barrier alone is worth more than your entire city!'
'It can't possibly be a local product. Someone must be secretly helping!' Such a thought flashed through Xu Yubin's mind, and he actually calmed down.
As long as he could confirm the authenticity of this information and send it back to headquarters, the losses suffered by the vanguard were completely acceptable.
However, just when Xu Yubin was about to order a retreat, a voice rang in his ears.
"Hey, do you have money?"
Xu Yubin turned around in surprise and saw a girl standing calmly behind him. She was the one who spoke just now.
Next to the girl was a boy about the same age as her, a rebellious look on his face. He didn't seem to have any intention of conversing.historical
"Who are you guys?" Xu Yubin turned wary and quickly asked. 99% percent of the people in this astral world were their enemies.
Hearing Xu Yubin's words, the young man said impatiently, "I told you already, no fool would answer your question honestly. Just rob first and ask later!"
Xu Yubin couldn't help sneering in his heart. He was a Void Cutter himself, not to mention he was still inside the battle formation… 'Wait, this is a Star Ruler!'
Moments later, the remaining half of the vanguard army was also killed, leaving only Xu Yubin, their general.
First a frontal attack, then sending in powerful experts for a sneak attack. Xu Yubin did this, and Yan Xiaoxiao also did the same.
Xie Yun hid the bountiful law aura unique to Star Rulers and asked seriously again, "Do you have money?"
……
Graceful Heaven's offensive was fierce, but Fang Chaoyun never would've thought that someone had already snuck inside his backyard.
Graceful Academy was where Fang Chaoyun personally taught, and he also served as the dean. It was also the most powerful academy in Graceful Heaven.
In this plane where academies were responsible for administration, this academy could be said to be the center of the astral world.
Gu Nan and Zhuangxuan didn't hide themselves and openly walked near Graceful Academy, waiting for the grand formation to be completed.
"Nice place." Gu Nan glanced inside the academy. The internal environment was indeed very suitable for studying, and the academic atmosphere could be seen everywhere.
"What a pity…" He then shook his head. All personnel responsible for setting up the formation had already set off, so the next step was to create complete chaos in Graceful Heaven.
Gu Nan sent an order back to his Divine Kingdom, and an army that Yan Xiaoxiao prepared in advance quickly descended upon Graceful Heaven, falling from the sky above Graceful Academy.
Zhuangxuan also knew Gu Nan prepared something for this phase, but he was a little surprised by this army's appearance.
It wasn't because they looked very bizarre—Zhuangxuan was also a knowledgeable person, so he wouldn't lose his composure over something like that.
It was because all members of the army were from the same race. They were even humanoid creatures, and all of them were stunningly beautiful.
This was a succubus army.
Gu Nan accumulated a lot of points, but this would not be a short war, so of course he had to use exactly the right divine servants for the job.
What was most effective against Confucian scholars?
Neither coercion nor bribery would work as well as these scantily-clad succubi who didn't stripping themselves naked.
Because Gu Nan's purpose this time was to disrupt, not simply kill.
"Senior really is full of surprises," Zhuangxuan's expression remained blank as he commented with a shake of his head.
While Zhuangxuan was speaking, the succubus army had gathered into a colorful cloud, then headed in various directions as they quickly fell from the sky.
Almost in the blink of an eye, white bodies could be seen everywhere in Graceful Academy.
These succubi didn't attack anyone and just acted like innocent lost travelers, so exclamations of "Such indecency! I must not look!" and "A danger to public morals!" were heard everywhere in the academy.
It wasn't just inside the academy, but the entire city where the academy was located was also "attacked" by the succubi.
Old Confucian scholars who'd been cultivating for many years might still be able to resist the succubi's temptation, but there weren't many people outside the academy who had this ability.
Just two days later, news reached Fang Chaoyun.
"M-Master…" A disciple stood before Fang Chaoyun and stammered.
Fang Chaoyun frowned slightly. "Was my astral world attacked? I asked your Martial Uncle Lin to stay behind and help out. The astral world should be fine."
"True, the astral world is fine…" the disciple hesitated. "M-Martial Uncle Lin… has already taken ten new concubines, and the academy's esteemed gentlemen are saying they want to kick him out…"
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"Absurd! Too absurd!"
In Graceful Academy's hall, a white-haired old man dressed like a Confucian scholar flew into a terrible rage.
The elder was surrounded by men both old and young, all dressed in Confucian attire. They were the disciples and teachers of Graceful Academy.
Graceful Academy was supervised by Fang Chaoyun, and almost all its students were his disciples, even the teachers.
In fact, there were no pure teachers in the academy. They were more like senior martial brothers who taught on behalf of their master.
For example, this old man was Hou Songshan. He was the oldest among Fang Chaoyun's disciples, and many people in the academy were brought up by him.
"Senior Martial Brother Hou, please calm down." The person next to him could only try his best to placate him, "Martial Uncle Lin is not a Confucian scholar like us, so he doesn't abstain from marriage…"
The Martial Uncle Lin they were talking about was Fang Chaoyun's junior martial brother. This time he asked Lin Ling, Song Fei's ninth disciple, to help guard his astral world.
Among Song Fei's disciples, Lin Ling was definitely an unusual one.
He cultivated swordsmanship all his life, but he wasn't like many swordsmen who only devoted themselves to the sword. Instead, he was more like a wandering martial artist. He liked to eat and drink lavishly. Whenever he went out, he rode a heavenly dragon mount. His harem was filled with so many beauties that even he himself couldn't keep count of them all.
With the descent of the succubus army, the other disciples in Graceful Academy were still restraining themselves—even if they really were tempted, they still had to worry about the academy's disciplinary system.
But Lin Ling had no such scruples. Not even Fang Chaoyun, his senior martial brother, could interfere in his personal affairs, let alone this group of martial nephews.
More importantly, although Lin Ling was fond of pleasure, he wasn't extremely obsessed and had never been to the World of Gods before.
The group of succubi sent right to his door allowed him to taste something new, causing him to suddenly indulge in pleasure while forgetting about home and duty.
However, not only did Lin Ling take in ten consecutive concubines, but he also flaunted them throughout the academy, as if afraid that others wouldn't know about it. This was detrimental to the academy's reputation.
Nowadays, taking concubines had become common practice in the city. If someone was accused of being immoral over it, they could simply say they were following Graceful Academy's example… 'How absurd!'
Hou Songshan was so furious precisely because he heard these outside rumors and called everyone here to discuss a countermeasure.
"Even so, there's no reason to disturb the academy's peaceful learning environment!" Hou Songshan glared at the person who just spoke. "If Martial Uncle Lin wants to take concubines, just ask him to do it outside!"
"That… is inconsistent with etiquette…" the person next to him responded cautiously.
Confucianism attached great importance to etiquette. When the teacher was away, it was natural to host the martial uncle in their home, not to mention the martial uncle was even here to help them.
Not disturbing the academy's peaceful learning environment was etiquette, but it was also etiquette to not kick their martial uncle out.
Hou Songshan was so furious that his hands were shaking and couldn't even speak, scaring everyone into quickly helping him sit down for fear that he would suffer a stroke.
This old man really was too old. Although he had Void Cutter strength, both his body and his laws had been severely eroded by time.
Unless one became a Star Ruler, it was impossible to exist forever.
"Senior Martial Brother, don't be anxious. We already notified Master. We can wait for him to make a decision."
"Yes! Master will definitely speak up for us… But Martial Uncle Lin has indeed gone a little too far. Those women don't look like anything good. They are probably witches who want to suck people dry."historical
"Senior Martial Brother, those words are a bit excessive. Why would Martial Uncle Lin fear witches? If these women really did have malicious intentions, he would've dealt with them long ago."
"Sigh… you're right."
After calming Hou Songshan down, everyone started discussing this. The most troublesome problem was that individual succubi held no evil intentions, so they couldn't just kill them indiscriminately.
As for the love between men and women, it was human nature. Could they force everyone not to take concubines?
Just when all the Confucian scholars were grappling with this dilemma, a tall and handsome figure strode swiftly into the hall.
This person was dressed in green. He had a faint smile on his face, but his eyes reflected the vicissitudes of life. He was the type most women found appealing.
"Martial Uncle Lin."
"Martial Uncle Lin."
Someone saw the man in green and quickly greeted him.
Lin Ling nodded back at them but stopped before Hou Songshan. The latter stood up with all his strength and saluted meticulously. "Songshan greets Martial Uncle Lin."
"No need, no need." Lin Ling revealed a helpless look. "Old man, you're probably even older than me. Why are you always obsessing over useless etiquette?"
Without waiting for Hou Songshan to respond, he added, "Your master sent me a letter. I will move out in two days. You guys should also read it."
Lin Ling handed the letter to Hou Songshan, which was Fang Chaoyun's response after receiving the news.
After all, nobody could stop Lin Ling from taking concubines. Letting him move out was the best solution. Of course, it was definitely inappropriate for Hou Songshan to suggest that, but Fang Chaoyun had no such scruples.
Hou Songshan read it at a glance, and his expression finally relaxed a little. He bowed again. "In that case, please forgive us for our inadequacy as your hosts, Martial Uncle."
Lin Ling waved his hand repeatedly. He wasn't willing to stay with these scholars in the first place. Even if no one dared to control him, it still felt annoying to see all these sticklers for the rules.
Someone beside him asked, "Martial Uncle, will Master not come back? These women's origins are unknown. I'm afraid—"
"Like hell their origins are unknown." Lin Ling sneered. "This is clearly Gu Nan's ploy. In terms of inter-plane warfare, ten of him will still be no match for your master. Of course he has to play these trivial tricks."
He paused for a moment, then continued, "Senior Martial Brother is right to not be fooled. If he comes back at this time, then he'll have fallen for the opponent's scheme!"
Only then did the scholars come to a sudden realization. Most of them didn't understand military strategy, or else they wouldn't have stayed in their hometown and would have gone to the battlefield long ago.
Lin Ling understood military strategy very well, but he had no in-depth understanding of both sides of the war and could only judge matters using conventional thinking.
……
Early the next morning, Lin Ling, escorted by a group of succubi, led a grandiose procession out of the gates of Graceful Academy.
In addition to the ten succubi he took as concubines, there were several more succubi this time. They were obviously the harem reserves.
"Lin Ling left." Zhuangxuan stood at the corner of the street, calmly watching Lin Ling's procession leave, and whispered, "Next, we can set up part of the formation directly inside the academy."
As long as Fang Chaoyun didn't return, a situation where "the darkest place is directly under the lamp" would exist; it wouldn't occur to anyone that there would be a problem in the academy.
Zhuangxuan slowly withdrew his gaze with a slight shake of his head. "It's a pity that the level of the succubi is too low. If they could actually influence Lin Ling, then we would have a greater chance of success."
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"It's not that simple." Gu Nan couldn't help laughing. "It's precisely because their levels are too low that Lin Ling can rest assured when taking concubines, or else he would've interrogated them long ago."
Succubi were one of the most common demon races in the abyss. Common often meant average. Their individual strength was indeed weak. Not many could even reach Tier 3.
But succubi had quite the outstanding talent when it came to lovemaking.
Their physical recovery ability was superb, allowing them to have super long-lasting "combat power", and at the same time, their passionate nature made them the ideal lovers.
It was such a unique existence that plunged Graceful City into chaos.
Some men randomly picked up a succubus and took her home. After getting a taste, they insisted on taking the succubus as concubine without regard to opposition, resulting in family discord and chaos.
Some people took the opportunity to capture succubi on a large scale, leaving a few for themselves and selling the rest at high prices to others, making a fortune without any cost.
There were even people who—after getting tired of playing with their succubi—exchanged them with others or sold them directly…
Throughout all this, the succubi themselves never once resisted. Even if she was sold by her master for money, she could still quickly cater to a new master and was definitely the most qualified personal maid.
In fact, this was the norm in the abyss; the succubi had long gotten used to it.
But when this trend spread quickly, Graceful City—and even the entire astral world—was greatly affected.
Owning a succubus slave became a status symbol. If they didn't have one, they would find a way to disguise a human as one.
Some people even made a special trip to the frontlines to purchase succubi. It can only be said that as long as there's a profit, there will always be someone doing that business.
However, these matters had nothing to do with Gu Nan and his group.
Gu Nan originally just wanted to use the succubus army to disrupt Graceful Academy, but it was surprisingly effective. Even Lin Ling was forced to leave, so they could set up the formation with less worry.
Gu Nan stayed in Graceful City for the next three days, entering Graceful Academy every night and personally setting up the formation.
After the first sub-formation was finished, Gu Nan would bring out the skull exuding strong bloodthirst from the Evil God Temple's second floor and place it on the eye of the formation.
Thus, a mysterious connection began to appear between the sub-formation and the skull. Even if the skull was removed from the formation eye, this connection still wouldn't be broken.
"Let's go, still 998 left," Gu Nan muttered with a helpless shrug.
999 sub-formations might sound very impressive on paper, but they were extremely cumbersome in practice.
Fortunately, while the first sub-formation was being laid out, preliminary work had already begun on the other sub-formations.
This allowed Gu Nan to just travel all over the plane to activate them instead of waiting for three days every time he reached a new spot.
And with Gu Nan and Zhuangxuan's realms, distance was completely negligible. They could arrive immediately by breaking through space.
But they also knew all too well that the next step was a battle against time.
It was impossible to set up thousands of formations without leaving any trace.
Once people inside Graceful Heaven noticed, the grand formation must be completed as soon as possible.
……
"Senior Martial Brother Hou! Another academy sent a report about seeing suspicious activities near their academy!" A disciple notified Hou Songshan.
"This is the sixth time in two days." Hou Songshan frowned heavily, almost squeezing together the wrinkles on his aged face. "Has that academy found any information on the other party?"
The disciple shook his head. "They haven't found anything yet… but Northwind Academy followed the traces and found an underground formation."
Northwind Academy wasn't far from Graceful City. It was a veritable military science academy. Most of the disciples who left the academy went to the battlefield.
Therefore, the management of Northwind Academy was extremely strict, and it was least affected by the succubus crisis. At the same time, it was also the most vigilant.
Hou Songshan asked in surprise, "What formation?"
"They've yet to ascertain its effect." The disciple answered with a shake of his head. "But according to the explanation from there, the formation should've been installed not long ago. It wasn't left behind from ancient times."
Hou Songshan didn't know why, but he suddenly felt uneasy. He decisively ordered, "Ask Northwind to send me a formation diagram immediately!"
……
Long-distance communication naturally wasn't hard for a large plane like Graceful Heaven. Hai Tong, the dean of Northwind Academy, quickly received the news.
"Formation diagram?" Hai Tong looked at the request with a little surprise. He felt that Elder Hou was making a fuss over nothing.
Someone had set up a grand formation under the academy—although this sounded scary, Hai Tong also had confidence in his own academy.
"Forget it, since Elder Hou requested it, just draw a formation diagram and pass it on," Hai Tong didn't think much of it and ordered.
"Yes, Dean."
Creating a formation diagram would take some time. Hai Tong also didn't slack off during this time and started studying this grand formation.
This should be a kind of formation passed down from ancient times and improved upon by modern cultivators. The other party seemed to have intentionally hidden the function of the formation. Many of the changes were focused on concealing the formation's effect.
Hai Tong was also someone with vast knowledge. He discovered something when he calmed down and slowly studied the formation diagram.
"This formation… seems to be both a core formation and a part of a larger formation?"
Hai Tong didn't dare neglect this matter. If his guess was correct, then the ones who set up this formation definitely weren't some petty thieves. They probably had grand designs.
"Immediately ask someone from the main academy to come over. Additionally, inform Elder Hou that this… Where is everyone?! Where have they gone?!"
Hai Tong issued a series of orders but received no response. After a while, he couldn't help glancing behind him in annoyance, but what entered his sight was an unexpected person.
"Your insight isn't bad." Gu Nan's faint laughter echoed underground.
The next moment, the head of the dean of Northwind Academy flew up and landed to the side.
After the grand formation was discovered, people from the Heaven-God Alliance were naturally monitoring this side. Seeing that Hai Tong was about to discover the final secret, they had no choice but to ask him to shut up forever.
Zhuangxuan's figure slowly walked out from the shadow behind Gu Nan and said heavily, "The formation is only about one-third complete. It really is impossible to completely hide all traces."historical
Gu Nan didn't feel much and casually said, "Since it's already been discovered, tell everyone to speed up at all costs. There's no need to worry about hiding themselves."
Zhuangxuan couldn't help but frown upon hearing this. "It's not like we don't have other options…"
"There's not enough time," Gu Nan cut in.
Zhuangxuan glanced at him in confusion. "Is it Senior's astral world?"
There was no doubt about Fang Chaoyun's ability, but it was still a little too fast for him to have already captured Gu Nan's astral world.
There was also the secret help from Zhong Qinghe—the armaments alone were enough to delay Fang Chaoyun for a long time.
Gu Nan shook his head. "The last person I wanted to discover me has finally discovered me."
At the edge of the Myriad Heavens, a ray of holy light descended from a distant place.
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"Austin?" Song Fei's voice traveled over from the void as his figure slowly emerged.
The holy light stopped, revealing Austin's figure. This Ruler of Light and Justice had a lanky figure and was nearly two meters tall. He wore a light gold robe made of holy light, while his appearance was typical of Westerners.
During the Great War, Song Fei left everything to Fang Chaoyun and sat quietly in the void precisely to monitor the movements of the thirteen greater gods on the opposing side.
But he had to focus all his energy here in order to do this, making it difficult to pay attention to what's happening with the Great War.
"I didn't expect you to be the first to come." Song Fei looked a little curious.
Of course Song Fei knew this person, the one known as the only Tier 15 greater god in the world and the God of Light whose might suppressed the entire World of Gods.
Although he was curious as to why the other party was the first to show up, he wasn't really afraid.
For top-level existences like them, level only meant a quantitative difference, but what determined victory or defeat was often a qualitative difference.
Austin's ability to prop up the Light Faction all by himself wasn't reliant on his level, but on his simultaneous rule over the two apex laws of light and justice.
"I'm not here for the war." Austin shook his head. "Your side's people captured my sister Sylvia."
Song Fei was stunned and subconsciously asked, "Who did this?"
"I don't know yet." Austin's eyes were slightly cold. "After entering the Myriad Heavens, I can find her within three days at most."historical
Song Fei fell silent. Letting Austin enter the Myriad Heavens at this time was risky. If he hit Academic Heaven with an attack in passing, there would be no need to continue this war.
But now that Austin came up with this reason, he obviously wouldn't take no for an answer.
A ruler slowly appeared in front of Song Fei; he no longer planned to settle this with words.
But he didn't expect Austin to react even faster. Just as the ruler emerged, holy light suddenly shot out and hit Song Fei's ruler.
Light! Endless light!
Real light was far from the world's impression of it—only having a sacred and gentle side. Rather, it was also the most tyrannical existence in the world.
Overwhelm everything and assimilate everything. There was nothing within the holy light's reach that could not be purified. This was the essence of the holy light.
Song Fei fought Austin for the first time, but in just one exchange, he saw the most powerful god's domineering power. The holy light seemed to be everywhere, knocking him down and squeezing out a passage past him.
However, just when the holy light was about to slip past, a blue radiance began to flash above, and a horsetail whisk brushed out from the void, directly beating the holy light down.
"The Myriad Heavens isn't a place you can break into at will." Yu Lian watched coldly as Austin appeared. With a flick of her right hand, the whisk floated back to rest on her left elbow.
"What an annoying light," a voice rang out behind Austin. The River Styx seemed to flow in reverse, and powers from the underworld poured down from the sky.
A young man in a black Daoist robe curled his lips slightly, having already appeared above Austin at some point.
He was one of the Thirteen Heavens, Qin Guanruo of Underworld Heaven.
As a god, Austin wanted to force his way into the Myriad Heavens. This was a major taboo. Generally, the Unified Dao existences of the Thirteen Heavens rarely showed themselves, yet two more arrived in the blink of an eye.
Qin Guanruo seemed like a specter that fell from the sky, but before he could fully materialize, a gleam of light suddenly lit up.
It seemed as if the boundless holy light spread out—like the earth holding up the sky—pushing back the underworld. Two completely different laws constantly collided and destroyed each other, creating shock waves capable of obliterating everything.
But everyone present was a Unified Dao Realm powerhouse, so they naturally weren't affected by this aftershock.
However, the collision of two powers drowned out all the energy signatures in their vicinity. None of the three Unified Dao cultivators noticed that a ray of holy light stealthily separated from the rest and quickly shot into the Myriad Heavens.
By the time they noticed it, it was already too late to stop it.
Even Austin had no intention of confronting three Unified Dao powers head-on, but he achieved his goal.
"He sent a clone. This was his purpose from the beginning." Yu Lian's eyes narrowed slightly. She realized what Austin was doing as soon as she glanced at that ray of light.
Void Grotto Heaven had always regarded itself as the most authentic Daoist sect and was the leader of all sects in the Myriad Heavens, so it was necessary to step up at this time.
"Looks like he's telling the truth," Qin Guanruo remarked from the side.
If it was just a clone, he wouldn't be able to cause much damage. They could easily subdue him as soon as he showed himself, so there was nothing to worry about.
Austin definitely didn't run over just to greet them and throw a clone into the Myriad Heavens. In all likelihood, his sister really was missing.
Yu Lian said, "Since he didn't come here for the war, let's just let him go. But Song Fei, your disciple doesn't even care about the Great War now?"
Song Fei frowned and quickly glanced towards his own astral world. Sure enough, Fang Chaoyun was nowhere to be seen. A quick search revealed that… Comrade Fang was staying at Gu Nan's place.
"How irresponsible!" The corners of Song Fei's lips twitched slightly, and he couldn't help cursing.
……
Moments later, Fang Chaoyun hurried to Academic Heaven and saw Song Fei standing there with a dark expression while Tang Jie—his junior martial brother—stood behind Song Fei, flashing him a helpless expression.
"M-Master…" Fang Chaoyun carefully walked up to Song Fei, like an elementary school student who had done something wrong.
"You still remembered to come back? Why don't you wait until the Great War is over to return?" Song Fei didn't give Fang Chaoyun a chance to speak and scolded him on the spot.
In fact, Song Fei focused all his attention on keeping an eye on the thirteen greater gods, not daring to be distracted for a second for fear that a greater god would secretly attack the weaker cultivators below him.
Yet Comrade Fang squandered the precious time he worked so hard to buy to deal with Gu Nan instead. How could Song Fei not be furious?
Fang Chaoyun didn't dare argue and could only bow his head silently. Just when he wanted to explain the situation, his expression suddenly changed.
"Master, something terrible is happening!"
……
Sylvia didn't know how long she'd been imprisoned. All she could touch was darkness.
All actions were impossible and all laws were restricted. She could only try to use her divine body to collide against her prison to eliminate the law of shadows that bound her.
She didn't know how long it would take to escape with this method, but it was the only thing she could do.
Whenever Sylvia had to stop and rest after over-exhausting her divine body, she couldn't help wondering: 'Will Brother realize I'm missing? If he does, will he be able to find me?'
If given another chance, she would definitely visit the Holy Light Divine Kingdom every day to ensure that Austin would discover her disappearance as soon as she went missing.
'Too bad… Huh?'
Sylvia suddenly sensed that something was emitting a faint light in front of her chest. It was a pendant, like a ray of holy light shining in the boundless darkness.
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A catastrophe had befallen Graceful Heaven.
Almost all its academies were attacked. Powerful enemies appeared out of nowhere and instantly captured all the major academies while even more powerful people descended from all sides, quickly invading Graceful Heaven and spreading out to set up large formations in various places.
The moment an enemy entered Graceful Academy, Lin Ling, who was invited by Fang Chaoyun to guard his astral world, rushed to the scene immediately.
He sent a horizontal slash with his sword, and the terrifying sword energy blocked all the enemies outside the academy. However, he had no intention of continuing and just stared at the sky gravely.
"Martial Uncle Lin, many villains have entered. Please take action!"
"Martial Uncle, if you need any help from us, please feel free to ask!"
"Martial Uncle Lin, they must be people sent by Gu Nan—"
"Everyone shut up!" Lin Ling looked irritated and berated all the scholars, causing them to fall silent, "He didn't just send people; he came in person."
……
As its Star Ruler, Fang Chaoyun was naturally the first to know about Graceful Heaven's situation, and Song Fei could also see the situation at a glance. He couldn't help frowning. "Go back first and deal with the matter before coming back."
Fang Chaoyun didn't have time to say anything else and left immediately, rushing to his astral world as soon as possible.
He also never expected Gu Nan to be so bold as to dare to attack Graceful Heaven directly.
He was already one of the most powerful existences under Unified Dao. Even people like Xue Ren had to avoid fighting Fang Chaoyun inside his own astral world, so what gave Gu Nan the guts to do this?
Fang Chaoyun's rage surged, and he quickly threw himself into the spatial passage without too much thought.
……
Space travel also took time. Before Fang Chaoyun could arrive, the situation in Graceful Heaven took a turn for the worse.
Lin Ling knew Gu Nan's impressive, vicious reputation and didn't dare to be careless. He just used his sword energy to protect the academy and didn't consider going out at all.
However, to his surprise, Gu Nan had no intention of hiding himself. He showed up just like that and leisurely walked up to the academy.
"We barely managed to set up the various sub-formations, but they're still incomplete. Senior will need to stay inside the main formation and link up the sub-formations scattered throughout this world," Zhuangxuan said from beside Gu Nan.
Gu Nan just nodded wordlessly. He took a step forward and was already inside Graceful Academy by the time his foot hit the ground.
"Gu Nan!" Lin Ling couldn't help shouting when she saw his figure, "You dare to act unbridled in Graceful Heaven? Senior Martial Brother Fang will return soon, and then—"
Lin Ling's voice abruptly cut off before he could finish. That was because Gu Nan's figure had landed in front of him and casually twisted his head off.
With Gu Nan's current Tier 10 Evil God physique, the strength and speed of his physical body alone had already reached incredible levels.
He simply moved, yet to others, he appeared to be teleporting. Moreover, his strength could easily destroy Star Rulers, making it impossible for them to resist.historical
Hou Songshan stood next to Lin Ling, watching Gu Nan appear inexplicably while the martial uncle holding a sword next to him slowly fell down, unable to say a word.
The next moment, Gu Nan's figure suddenly disappeared again, heading underground to control the core formation. As for the Confucian scholars who came with Hou Songshan, they were naturally dealt with by Zhuangxuan's people.
The grand formation underneath Graceful Academy was the core formation controlling all the sub-formations and the location where power extracted from the blood sacrifice would gather.
Gu Nan placed the crimson skull down, and a faint red light appeared from both ends, then quickly flew into the skull.
All living creatures in Graceful City clearly felt a mysterious power descend, as if something was surging inside their bodies and trying to break out.
At the same time, the threads of life they couldn't see were being continuously pulled out and gathered underground.
Some creatures with short lifespans already showed signs of rapid aging and reached the end of their lifespans in the blink of an eye.
This strange phenomenon quickly caused panic. Those who had the ability to leave Graceful Heaven already fled as if they were taking refuge; the remaining inhabitants were normal people with insufficient strength.
At this moment, Fang Chaoyun finally arrived.
He took in Graceful Heaven's entire situation in a glance and almost fainted, his vision going dark.
'What a bully!'
This Gu Nan didn't come here just to stir up trouble; he actually wanted to blood sacrifice the entire Graceful Heaven!
Fang Chaoyun was filled with remorse and shame. If he hadn't been so blinded by hatred and gone to the frontlines himself, he would never have given Gu Nan such a chance!
"Die!"
Along with a loud shout, a huge "die" character appeared out of thin air and landed in the sky above Graceful Academy.
Deep underground, Gu Nan slowly opened his eyes, glanced at the grand formation on the ground that had turned blood-red, and finally smiled.
"Song Fei and Austin are both here. Thank goodness I prepared in advance."
He stepped out of the formation, grabbed an orb out of thin air, and pressed it directly into the ground.
"Consider yourself lucky. Make room for Old Fang."
As Gu Nan finished speaking, the world originally sealed inside the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb quickly dissipated and returned to its original place, while a new vortex started forming around the orb.
The next second, Gu Nan's figure suddenly disappeared and reappeared in midair, facing the word "die" falling directly on his head.
Less than two years later, Gu Nan once again stood before Fang Chaoyun, yet the current him was incomparably stronger than before.
Fang Chaoyun held nothing back this time, imbuing a huge amount of his astral world's power into one character. Even a Tier 10 powerhouse would need to avoid that attack.
It could be said that very few people could confront the current Fang Chaoyun head-on, but Gu Nan just happened to be one of them.
Without any unnecessary movement, Gu Nan raised his fist and punched up, hitting the "die" character square in the center.
A head-on confrontation!
Gu Nan's choice was unexpected, and the result was equally unexpected.
The punch collided with the character, and the terrifying impact almost blew the entire Graceful Academy away while Gu Nan's figure seemed to be unaffected and jumped outside the shockwave''s range at extremely high speed.
In the end, Fang Chaoyun was someone who lived for tens of thousands of years. Even when he was extremely furious, he didn't lose his basic vigilance.
He'd already realized something was wrong the instant Gu Nan suddenly appeared. He wrote six characters for "resist" in quick succession, which floated around him in an attempt to resist possible attacks.
Unfortunately, the one he had to face was a Tier 10 Gu Nan, a monstrous existence Yan Xiaoxiao described as unprecedented.
Another punch landed, and Fang Chaoyun felt as if a whole world was bearing down on him. The six "resist" characters couldn't even block for an instant and were destroyed as soon as they made contact!
Fang Chaoyun strengthened his defense with his astral world's power, but it was completely destroyed. 'Could it be that… a Unified Dao existence is secretly helping him?'
With his thoughts distracted for a split second, it was no longer possible for him to turn the tables on Gu Nan.
Gu Nan's movements flowed naturally. While breaking through Fang Chaoyun's defense with one punch, another punch was already headed for the enemy's abdomen.
Just as this lightning-fast punch was about to land, an aura suddenly rose in the air, and a ruler finally fell from the void, targeting Gu Nan's heart.
Gu Nan, however, didn't retreat but instead advanced, increasing his speed even further. He was actually planning to tank an attack from a Unified Dao powerhouse!
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Unified Dao and below Unified Dao were two completely different realms.
In a sense, reaching Star Ruler Realm was taking a qualitative leap to become a higher lifeform, and Unified Dao was another one, with the magnitude of this leap being even greater.
There had never been a precedent for a normal Star Ruler challenging a Unified Dao cultivator. Even the most amazingly talented Star Rulers in history only managed to escape from a Unified Dao existence at most.
The last person to achieve such a feat was Li Ci, the ruler of one of the Thirteen Heavens, Myriad Laws Heaven.
Li Ci was famous for his "myriad laws", which referred to how he escaped from the hands of a Unified Dao powerhouse by virtue of his myriad cunning and frequently-changing laws back when he was still a normal Star Ruler.
But Gu Nan intended to do something even more terrifying right now—he wanted to tank an attack from a Unified Dao figure.
The ruler landed without any hindrance and hit Gu Nan square in the chest. The blow was like the collision of heaven and earth, its power having completely surpassed Gu Nan's current level. Not even the Evil God physique could resist.
Gu Nan's chest instantly cracked open, as if a cannonball hit his chest and blasted a gaping hole in his body.
But not even such an injury could stop Gu Nan from landing his punch.
Fang Chaoyun must die!
In Fang Chaoyun's pupils, Gu Nan's figure grew bigger at an incredible speed, and then his fist landed.
Indescribable power surged forth, and Fang Chaoyun felt something inside his body explode as his consciousness immediately dissipated.
Gu Nan's fist was also like a cannonball, and it was a cannonball filled with ample gunpowder. With one punch, Fang Chaoyun's whole body exploded, and blood and flesh started to rain down from the air.
"The power of the astral world can only strengthen one's laws. It's still too weak." Gu Nan retracted his fist and shook his head slightly. The injury on his chest was recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if the ruler had never landed.
The next instant, Song Fei's figure appeared in front of him, staring at Gu Nan with an unprecedented grave expression.
"I should have killed you back then," he spoke his mind without hiding anything.
However, Song Fei didn't take action again. He knew that since the previous blow didn't kill Gu Nan, it was even more impossible now.
Setting aside the fact that Gu Nan would be able to escape, this scene just now was enough for Zi Luo Elder to protect Gu Nan. After this, Zi Luo Elder couldn't possibly allow Song Fei to kill him.
A Star Ruler capable of withstanding a blow from a Unified Dao cultivator would almost certainly ascend to Unified Dao; the only question was how long it would take.
Gu Nan shrugged wordlessly. Song Fei appearing so early was indeed unexpected, but in his original plan, it would be impossible to hide Fang Chaoyun's death from Song Fei anyways.
The blood sacrifice operation had entered the final stage, and Gu Nan already made plans to deal with this.
Song Fei stared at Gu Nan for a while, then suddenly asked, "Austin is here for you?"
"Hey now, don't pin all the blame on me," Gu Nan countered with a dissatisfied expression. He didn't look like he was lying at all.
Song Fei nodded, then raised his ruler again, pointing it directly at Gu Nan.
Just because he wouldn't take action for now didn't mean he would simply let Gu Nan go. Even if he really couldn't kill the other party, what must be done still had to be done!
Gu Nan didn't try to tank it this time and instantly disappeared, wandering through the boundary between shadow and reality.
But such a lowly application of laws was completely worthless in the eyes of a Unified Dao power. Song Fei turned his ruler and struck a spot in the void, directly exposing Gu Nan's location.
The strike hit Gu Nan's neck this time, blasting apart almost half of his head, but this was still not a fatal injury.
The next second, boundless purple intent descended from the sky, dyeing the entire sky purple and crushing directly down on Song Fei.
Song Fei shook his head with a faint sigh, knowing there would be no opportunity to attack Gu Nan again. His figure disappeared without a trace before the purple color landed. Immediately after, Zi Luo Elder's figure appeared next to Gu Nan.
"Austin said that you're called an Evil God on that side?" Zi Luo Elder looked at Gu Nan with a smile.historical
Gu Nan couldn't help raising an eyebrow. "He already visited you?"
Zi Luo Elder nodded lightly. "He brought Sylvia along and met all the Unified Dao cultivators here. However, Song Fei didn't have time to meet him yet because of Fang Chaoyun's matter."
After a pause, the old man continued with a chuckle, "Song Fei most likely asked that question because someone else notified him just now."
Gu Nan nodded silently. When he looked back at his own Divine Kingdom, he saw that Sylvia was gone. After all, Austin was Austin. Let alone three days, it didn't even take him three hours to find his target.
And quietly rescuing Sylvia without giving the Evil God Temple a blow in passing was likely because he didn't want to inadvertently alert Gu Nan. 'He wants to join forces with the Unified Dao powers on this side to capture me?'
As if he knew what Gu Nan was thinking, Zi Luo Elder twirled his beard and added, "He asked for our cooperation to kill you on the grounds that you are a public enemy of the gods. Naturally, we… rejected him."
Gu Nan finally raised his head in confusion. He, who was accustomed to being hunted by the entire world as soon as his identity was exposed, had yet to process this turn of events.
This time, Zi Luo Elder didn't say anything. Instead, another voice spoke up from behind them.
"What does the public enemy of the gods have to do with us? You are the public enemy of the gods—this just means that you are the most solid supporter of the Myriad Heavens." Yu Lian, the leader of all Daoist sects, slowly walked out and looked at Gu Nan. "I very much look forward to your ascension to Unified Dao."
……
"Brother, Gu Nan is an Evil God, the same kind of Evil God who will definitely destroy the whole world. Why don't those fools understand?!"
Sylvia couldn't help complaining while following Austin back to the World of Gods.
After Austin rescued her, he kept her with him, even taking her along to meet all the other Unified Dao cultivators. Thus, Sylvia also witnessed the Thirteen Heavens' "I refuse" attitude.
They didn't believe Austin at all. None of the Thirteen Heavens were willing to help.
She clearly knew how dangerous Gu Nan was, yet she was unable to kill him when he was still weak, all thanks to these pig teammates. This made Sylvia furious, especially since she had been trapped for so long…
Austin came here using just a clone, so his real power was barely enough to be considered a Star Ruler. However, he could still control the law of light, which allowed him to rescue Sylvia.
If his main body had come here, he would've killed Gu Nan with a slap a long time ago, and there would've been no need to ask anyone for help.
"The Myriad Heavens doesn't have any legends about Evil Gods," Austin indifferently gave the "standard answer", then shook his head. "If I'd known he was an Evil God earlier, then even if I had to force my way in, I would definitely take the opportunity to come over."
He recently realized that Sylvia was missing and just wanted to send a clone over to find his sister. Who knew that things would be so complicated?
"Then what should we do now?" Sylvia asked anxiously.
"Go back," The Ruler of Light and Justice spat out those words. "Then… slaughter our way over and kill him."
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After Song Fei left, no one else interfered with Gu Nan's blood sacrifice.
However, just to guard against the unexpected, the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb that he placed in advance still worked, and the entire Graceful Heaven was sealed inside it. The majority of the blood sacrifice was completed inside the orb.
On the other hand, Duan Wenqi, who was originally imprisoned in the orb, was finally freed. Gu Nan let him out to make room for Graceful Heaven.
Together with his Savage Beasts World, they both returned to their original positions.
After Fang Chaoyun died and Gu Nan took away Graceful Heaven, he could finally wait for the blood sacrifice to finish and then take out the crimson skull.
In other words, Gu Nan just needed to stay at home and wait for the Second Round to finish now.
……
While Gu Nan was waiting for the Second Round, the Thirteen Heavens convened again. Zi Luo Elder was still not present, but the attitude of the thirteen bigshots was different from before.
The last Unified Dao meeting was to deal with the potential Great War between the two worlds, while this time, it was to prepare for the possible arrival of a new member.
That's right: Zi Luo Elder, who could only exist for ten years, wasn't yet acknowledged by these people, but Gu Nan, who'd displayed astonishing power, was viewed as someone who would almost certainly ascend to Unified Dao.
"So you met him?" Zou Jiming was still the first to speak, staring at the Yu Lian who just appeared.
Regarding Gu Nan's rapid growth, Yu Lian, who'd personally met him, undoubtedly had the most say.
As for Song Fei… because he was screwed over before, Zou Jiming just wanted to completely ignore this person now.
Yu Lian didn't mind and nodded. "The ascension aura on his body is already very obvious, and the current him also possesses some characteristics of Unified Dao Realm."
The monstrous, distorted aura Gu Nan gave off couldn't be hidden and was naturally noticed by Yu Lian.
Perhaps the gods could only see the monstrous aspect, but the Unified Dao existences from the Myriad Heavens had other opinions.
They held no prejudice against Evil Gods and only regarded them as a special path. There were countless Great Daos, all of which could reach Unified Dao Realm.
After Yu Lian finished speaking, the remaining twelve Unified Dao figures all had different expressions. Qin Guanruo walked up to Song Fei and shook his head.
He had a good personal relationship with Song Fei, but now he came to persuade Song Fei to stop. If his disciples died, he could still train more. But if he obstinately opposed Gu Nan to the end, both sides would suffer losses.
Song Fei waved his hand to indicate that he was fine, apparently able to accept this outcome.
The ascension of practically every Unified Dao cultivator was not smooth-sailing, and there would almost always be conflicts with other forces to some extent.
Back when Song Fei broke through, he stepped over Zi Luo Elder to ascend to his current position. Now, that karma was simply coming back to bite him.
"As for power." Yu Lian paused, then said, "In ancient times, our Daoist sect referred to Unified Dao cultivators as 'Saints'. I think it's time to use the current Gu Nan as a benchmark to establish a Half-Saint Realm."
"In that case, we'll ignore Austin's demand?" Milky Way Heaven's Si Yun spoke up. He was one of the Unified Dao powers more hostile to gods.
His Milky Way Heaven's cultivation path placed equal emphasis on metaphysics and technology and attached great importance to exploring the wisdom of mortals, so he scorned the gods' use of faith.
"He called Gu Nan the public enemy of the gods. If we don't give Gu Nan to them, I'm afraid a real Great War will be inevitable," Song Fei interjected. He'd already heard Austin's words by now.
Lu Wen said with a sneer, "If they want a fight, we're happy to oblige. If we just give them whomever they want, then will we even have any face left?"
Regardless of whether they had a personal vendetta against Gu Nan, directly lowering their heads and surrendering Gu Nan to the gods would make the entire Myriad Heavens lose face.
Immediately afterwards, several more people spoke their opinions, which were all similar to Lu Wen's. Regardless of whether Gu Nan could ascend or not, it was impossible for them to allow the gods to take him away just like that.
Finally, Yu Lian looked around. "Then it's decided."
……
While the Unified Dao powerhouses were discussing Gu Nan, all the major forces in the Myriad Heavens were equally astonished by his impressive feat this time.
There has never been a normal Star Ruler capable of completely blasting apart an opponent like Fang Chaoyun—who even had the blessing of his astral world—with one punch.
Likewise, there has never been a normal Star Ruler who could tank two attacks from a Unified Dao powerhouse and still act like nothing happened afterwards.
The specific content of the Thirteen Heavens' meeting naturally wasn't announced to the public, but Yu Lian's evaluation of Gu Nan's strength somehow circulated.
Thus, the idea of adding a "Half-Saint" realm between the peak of Star Ruler Realm and Unified Dao Realm began to spread among the Myriad Heavens.
"With just one person's power, he created an entirely new cultivation realm. This fellow really is impressive."
In Extreme Sword Heaven, Xue Ren commented with a faint smile as he sipped a cup of tea.
Although his words sounded envious, there was no emotion in his voice, only tranquility.historical
Immortal Empress Taisheng was still with him. Seeing Xue Ren's reaction, she couldn't help asking, "You don't seem surprised?"
"Of course I'm not surprised." Xue Ren smiled, pointing to the wound on his chest. "After all, I was the first witness of this Half-Saint Realm."
Immortal Empress Taisheng remained silent for a long time. She seemed to feel that Xue Ren's words undermined himself a bit too much, so she couldn't help saying, "If he doesn't successfully enter Unified Dao, being a Half-Saint is just a joke."
She looked up at Xue Ren again. "This injury will allow you to recuperate quietly and properly focus on breaking through. You should go into isolated cultivation as soon as possible. Don't waste time."
However, Xue Ren shook his head with a smile. "I'm already in isolated cultivation."
……
In Star Realm, the maiden Wu Gui rushed to Red and advised her to leave her astral world and hide herself for the time being.
In Void Grotto Heaven, the first thing Yu Lian did when she returned to her astral world was to send someone to warn Daoist Monarch Wu Tian to drop all thoughts of becoming Gu Nan's enemy again.
Lu Wen, Duan Wenqi, the Heaven-God Alliance… Be they Gu Nan's former enemies or friends, all of them completely changed their attitudes towards him after this incident.
Not even Unified Dao powerhouses could kill him. This meant that as long as Gu Nan didn't court death, even if he had to wait thousands or tens of thousands of years, he would still advance to Unified Dao sooner or later.
……
Austin immediately informed all the greater gods of the Evil God's existence as soon as he returned to the World of Gods.
Unlike the Unified Dao cultivators next door, the greater gods attached the utmost importance to the existence of Evil Gods, almost to the point of affecting their survival as a species.
Because in the ancient legends of the World of Gods, the first greater god in the ancient era was the God of Creation. He created the world, but he also created Evil Gods.
And Evil Gods exist precisely to destroy the world. Even the God of Creation ultimately chose to sacrifice himself in order to seal the extremely powerful Evil God.
"The Evil God from ancient times actually reincarnated into the Myriad Heavens?" Eugene, the Ruler of War, asked with a frown.
While he was very bellicose, that didn't mean he didn't understand how much trouble the separation of the two worlds would cause for them.
"But the Evil God must die," Goddess of Darkness Daisy said decisively.
"Of course, but…" the Ruler of Nightmares chuckled. "Before that, I want to share some new discoveries with you. Perhaps we can use this to our advantage."
As the Ruler of Nightmares finished, a scene slowly appeared in front of everyone. It was the scene of a group of people sneaking into a certain Divine Kingdom to seize the power of faith.
"What do these people from the Myriad Heavens need the power of faith for?" Goddess of Nature Daphne frowned and asked.
"Divine power isn't the only thing faith can transform into." The Ruler of Nightmares' smile grew more and more mysterious. "It's a power of the psyche first and foremost, so it can also become… the power of the dream realm."
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What was Gu Nan—the person once again at the center of the storm—doing right now?
He was leisurely sitting in his Divine Kingdom and observing the Graceful Heaven trapped inside the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb. It was continuously blood sacrificed into wisps of blood Qi that then flew into the crimson skull.
Gu Nan originally thought the blood sacrifice could be completed quickly, but it turned out that the hurriedly-completed Blood Sacrifice Formation was flawed after all.
Even though Fang Chaoyun was already dead, Graceful Heaven's residents didn't bow their heads and wait for death. Instead, they upheld the Confucian spirit of "unrelenting self-improvement" and devised all kinds of ways to survive the blood sacrifice.
When the sky cracked and the earth broke apart, they moved to a more stable area; when ferocious beasts ran rampant, they found ways to hunt the beasts and leave a safe area where normal people could live.
These lucky people who survived the blood sacrifice—or rather, it wasn't their turn to be sacrificed yet—displayed amazing vitality.
Such scenes were very reminiscent of the human race in ancient times overcoming obstacles and seeking a path to survival among all the other races.
However… their efforts were futile.
It was impossible for Graceful Heaven, which was trapped inside the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb, to escape the fate of being completely blood sacrificed—because no one could save them.
And the string in Gu Nan's heart that was always drawn tight ever since he came to this world could finally relax a little.
As long as he completed the Second Round, there would be very few people in this world who could truly threaten his life.
Even if he was facing a powerhouse like Austin, Gu Nan was quite sure he could still escape with his life, and he might not even suffer too many injuries.
In fact, his current survival situation was much better than in the game.
A large number of players in the game chose to build their Divine Kingdoms in secret or even deep in the void because they didn't want to be noticed by the greater gods.
This was because it was extremely difficult for players to hide their identity after the Second Round; being discovered was almost inevitable.
And once they became the gods' public enemy, the player must face a situation where they would be hunted down by all gods. They would become street rats who had to hide themselves at all times.
It could be said that starting from the Second Round, the difficulty of the game would really start to show, suddenly becoming a stealth survival game.
Players must hide their whereabouts while hunting powerful gods and continuously spreading evil to finally break out of the predicament.
But the current Gu Nan was different. The existence of the Myriad Heavens gave him the perfect safe haven for survival. It would not be easy for the gods to come over and hunt him down.
'It's time to consider matters after the Second Round.' The blood sacrifice would take about half a month to complete, so Gu Nan's thoughts turned elsewhere.
Although the Myriad Heavens allowed him to develop more steadily, it also affected his advancement post-Second Round. There were both advantages and disadvantages to this.
After the player's Second Round, points gradually left the self-advancement system and could only be used for Divine Kingdom construction while Evil Value became the main basis for leveling up.
The core principle behind earning Evil Value hadn't changed, but the methods became more diverse.
But no matter what, it would still be related to the gods, so being in the Myriad Heavens would always be a little inconvenient…
While Gu Nan was thinking, Yan Xiaoxiao's voice came from the side, interrupting his thoughts.
"Teacher, a Unified Dao cultivator has come to the Divine Kingdom... No, not a Unified Dao cultivator, but power belonging to Unified Dao Realm," Yan Xiaoxiao's voice was very urgent, and the situation really did warrant such urgency.
Gu Nan suddenly opened his eyes. His figure disappeared from the Evil God Temple and appeared on the border of the Divine Kingdom.
"The power of faith? No, the power of the dream realm." Gu Nan frowned slightly, having already determined the source of this power in the blink of an eye.
He noticed that power was converging here for an attack and also discovered the other party's origin, but he had no way to stop its descent, because this attack was purely composed of laws.
After all, Gu Nan was still Tier 10 and hadn't actually finished the Second Round yet, so there was a qualitative difference in the power of his laws.
He was only able to fight Unified Dao figures thanks to his extremely powerful physical body, but he had no advantage in terms of laws. It was just like how Song Fei was still able to pull him out with a ruler when Gu Nan tried to hide in the shadows.
Now that this Unified Dao-level dream realm descended, its target being his entire Divine Kingdom, Gu Nan could only watch.
Fortunately, he only needed to wait for the Second Round to finish now, so the Divine Kingdom was no longer his focus, and… this power didn't seem to be here to kill, instead having a different aim.
Dream-like power descended from the sky, causing most of the creatures in the whole Divine Kingdom to fall into a deep slumber at the same time, and the entire Divine Kingdom turned silent.
However, no one died from this, but all of them were fast asleep.
Laws at Unified Dao Realm could easily affect a large plane. They were capable of terrifying effects like these.historical
Of course Gu Nan didn't fall asleep from this, but he was inevitably affected by the power of the dream realm. His thoughts began to dull, and his body gradually became uncontrollable.
If someone wanted to ambush him, this was undoubtedly the best time.
Fortunately, the Evil God physique was powerful. Almost all the debuffs affecting Gu Nan's physical body were assimilated and eliminated by the Evil God physique.
Because the power of the dream realm directly affected one's psyche, this process was delayed, but it still had an effect.
By the time Gu Nan came back to his senses, the dream realm's power had completely enveloped his Divine Kingdom. All creatures in the Divine Kingdom were trapped in the dream realm, and wisps of psychic power were constantly being drawn out.
This scene was somewhat similar to Gu Nan's blood sacrifice of Graceful Heaven, except Gu Nan took away life force while the dream realm only collected mental power.
The process of gathering psychic power was slow and long-lasting. As the mental power gradually gathered, Gu Nan began to notice something unusual.
Laws continued to emerge, a will started to descend, and a brand new lifeform seemed to be born from it.
……
Just as the power of the dream realm descended upon Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom, the Great War between the two worlds suddenly intensified.
This was caused by a sudden escalation from the World of Gods. A large number of high-level gods attacked, catching the Myriad Heavens by surprise.
Even the greater gods began to wantonly intervene. The greater gods who were originally rarely seen could be seen on the frontlines almost every other day.
Even if they were the first to attack every time and thus couldn't gain the upper hand over the Unified Dao cultivators on this side, they were still happy.
This offensive continued for over ten days. It seemed that the gods really were making good on Austin's threat.
The Unified Dao figures had already expected this, but they didn't expect the gods to take action so quickly.
After the initial disarray, the Unified Dao cultivators quickly dealt with the situation calmly, feeling quite relaxed.
After all, they always had the upper hand. If the World of Gods continued like this, it would only exhaust the greater gods' condition.
In just ten days, two greater gods had been injured, one of them even suffering heavy injuries. It was precisely the overly enthusiastic Ruler of War, Eugene.
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Just when the Unified Dao figures thought the gods had gone crazy trying to kill Gu Nan at all cost, the lifeform inside the dream realm finally woke up completely.historical
A faint sigh that seemed to emanate from ancient times rang out in the dreams of everyone in the Divine Kingdom.
Almost at the same time, Gu Nan also opened his eyes. Graceful Heaven's blood sacrifice finished just now.
Due to Fang Chaoyun's death, most of the plane collapsed, and all the living beings had their vitality completely drained by Gu Nan. It could be said that Graceful Heaven had ceased to exist.
And when all the life force was absorbed by the crimson skull, the skull started emitting a strange brilliance, even dyeing the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb scarlet.
After all, the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb was just an item and had its own usage limitations; the crimson skull clearly almost exceeded its usage range.
Gu Nan removed the skull from the orb without hesitation, then made for the Evil God Temple, heading up to the second floor.
As long as he placed the crimson skull back in its original spot, the Second Round would be complete!
……
Outside the Divine Kingdom, as that woman sighed, the Great War happening on the frontlines slowed down.
"Dream Immortal returned so soon?" Yu Lian raised a brow slightly and asked with some surprise.
The timing of Dream Immortal's return was uncertain, but the general consensus was that it would be at least a hundred years later… What allowed her to return early?
Yu Lian looked at Lu Wen. The two happened to be on the same battlefield at this time, and the fact that Lu Wen had already intervened in Dream Immortal's return a long time ago was no secret.
Lu Wen smiled and had no intention of hiding anything anymore. He told Yu Lian everything about Dream Immortal's former followers, who went to the World of Gods to collect the power of faith to help her recover in advance.
"Speaking of which, it's all thanks to the recent war." Lu Wen added, "If so many gods hadn't died, they wouldn't have been able to collect faith so easily."
"So then, they might also be the ones who instigated the Great War between the two worlds?" Yu Lian raised an eyebrow.
"It's hard to say." Of course Lu Wen also suspected them before, but he still had some doubts. "This time Dream Immortal's return… Wait! This is not Dream Immortal's power!"
Lu Wen was startled. Glancing back at the Myriad Heavens, he saw that the place Dream Immortal revived from looked a little familiar.
Dream Immortal just happened to revive inside Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom, but the power she ultimately used was not her own. Could this even be a coincidence?
As if to confirm Lu Wen's suspicions, a dark purple beam slipped out of the dream realm and quickly shot towards the Evil God Temple.
After the purple beam passed, a girl with a graceful figure slowly emerged, frowning at that ray of purple light.
"You're scheming me? I don't care who you are—"
"Dream Immortal," another voice interrupted from behind her. It was a square-faced man wearing full golden armor.
Alkaid Heaven's Huo Kui, the only one of the Thirteen Heavens who started out as a mortal general and ultimately reached this position. He was also Dream Immortal's most important ally in the past.
In the battle where Dream Immortal almost died, Huo Kui was the only one who stood by her side. He also sustained heavy injuries because of that, or else Lu Wen wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to swap Dream Immortal's son.
Dream Immortal nodded slightly at him. "I haven't seen you for tens of thousands of years. I don't seem to recognize these Myriad Heavens anymore."
"A lot of things happened." Huo Kui sighed. "Not counting you, one more new Unified Dao cultivator might emerge soon… It could also be two."
Dream Immortal was slightly taken aback. She knew perfectly well what the birth of a new Unified Dao existence meant, and she also knew just how difficult it was to take this step.
Don't be fooled by how there were over ten such existences in each of the two worlds. In fact, this number was accumulated over endless years.
Before Dream Immortal could ask anything else, her former followers arrived.
"We welcome the Cult Master's return!"
Star Rulers and Void Cutters with various appearances—dressed in black cult uniforms—all looked at Dream Immortal with tears of excitement.
They were diehard cultists of the Cloud Dream Cult in the past. After ten thousand years of perseverance, they finally witnessed their Cult Master's return.
Dream Immortal still attached great importance to her old subordinates, and almost everyone wanted to have a few words alone.
But then the leader felt ashamed. "Your subordinate is incompetent. The Young Master…"
"I already know about this." Dream Immortal interrupted, "I personally swapped three babies back then in order to fool everyone. I didn't expect Lu Wen to know about it."
Dream Immortal was slumbering in the long River of Time and was unaware of events in the outside world. Only things related to Lou Wanying could be known through the connection of fate.
"The person who killed him has been implicated by my mark. I can feel that he is here." Dream Immortal's expression gradually darkened. "Since you dared to kill my son, you will naturally have to pay…"
She was only halfway through when her attention was drawn to movement in the distance, causing her to stop talking.
She saw the purple light in the distance landing on top of the Evil God Temple. Immediately after, the light erupted, turning into a figure with a sublime aura.
"Dream manifestation? Someone else ascended to Unified Dao using the Great Dao of dreams?" Dream Immortal suddenly turned around and asked Huo Kui.
Huo Kui slowly shook his head. "No. It's the Ruler of Nightmares from the World of Gods. As for why he can project his power here… He probably borrowed the power of your resurrection."
While the two were talking, the figure made of holy light that manifested through projection was already holding a longsword of holy light and slashing down directly at the Evil God Temple!
Everything that happened before was just a diversion, distracting all the Unified Dao powers and preventing them from immediately discovering Dream Immortal's return.
And when the power of the dreams completely materialized, Kenneth took advantage of it to transfer Austin's power over—this was the gods' ultimate goal!
"Austin…" Dream Immortal frowned tightly. She didn't completely understand this God of Light's actions.
'The person he wants to deal with is the same fellow who killed my son? Judging from the astral world, he should merely be a normal top-tier Star Ruler. Why would Austin need to personally take action?'
Dream Immortal's gaze paused for a moment and then stopped looking. She borrowed the mental power of this world's inhabitants to revive, so she knew this Star Ruler's level very well.
However, a surprising twist happened when the sword of holy light fell.
That temple seemed to have predicted the holy sword in advance and voluntarily split into two, revealing a human figure in the middle.
"Austin, Kenneth." A calm voice came from that person's mouth, seemingly with a smile, "I'll pay you guys a visit when I have time. As for this time… I accept your partial Godheads."
In order to ensure nothing could go wrong, the two greater gods simultaneously sent out clones, and they were clones that truly possessed portions of their own powers. After all, these clones were created using a fragment of their Godheads!
Austin didn't seem to hear the other party's words, and the holy sword accelerated slightly, as if he wanted to slice apart the opponent's body along with his astral world.
Dream Immortal glanced at Huo Kui in confusion and asked, "Who is this person? A Star Ruler who just advanced in the last ten thousand years?"
Huo Kui answered gravely, "Ten thousand years…? No, he's a Unified Dao power who just ascended within a hundred years."
As Huo Kui finished speaking, Gu Nan instantly took action. Boundless shadows seemed to be surging behind him, swallowing up the holy sword and the power of nightmares.
This was genuine Unified Dao Realm power!
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After Gu Nan placed the crimson skull on the second floor of the Evil God Temple, the Second Round was completed.
There were no abnormal phenomena around the world, no signs of someone ascending to Unified Dao. As a matter of fact, no one even noticed. But Gu Nan had already stepped into Unified Dao Realm.
Based on classifications from the World of Gods and the game, the current Gu Nan was already at Tier 11.
There were existences on the same level as him, such as the two top powers reigning over the law of time on both sides, Clockwork Heaven's Lu Wen and God of Time Valen.
These two were both juniors in the Unified Dao hierarchy and ascended most recently. Of course, Rolensia was also among those ranks now.
But after reaching this stage, how early or late someone entered this realm and their level could no longer be used to judge the person's strength.
For example, even if Lu Wen was only at Tier 11, he still didn't fear the Tier 12 Song Fei at all. This confidence stemmed from the special nature of his laws and also from the two Great Daos he comprehended when he ascended to Unified Dao.
The same went for Gu Nan. Even if he just reached Tier 11, he still had the confidence to kill the clones of two veteran greater gods!
The holy sword struck Gu Nan's head with great force as terrifying holy flames poured out, spreading all over Gu Nan's body in the blink of an eye. But Gu Nan continued charging forward without slowing down at all.
The holy sword could not damage his body, and the holy flames could not effectively burn him. On the other hand, Gu Nan was getting closer and closer to the holy light clone and purple mist.
One must know that the power of the dream realm appeared in the sky above the Evil God Temple, almost at the edge of the astral world, and Austin even sealed off space—disabling all teleportation—in order to leave an escape route for himself.
But now, Gu Nan relied solely on his own speed to shorten the distance enough for a counterattack!
Austin's clone made three consecutive slashes, each slash imbued with blazing holy flames. Even laws were burned and distorted by the holy flames, then assimilated into boundless light.
Even with just a clone, the characteristics of the law of light have not changed.
Gu Nan's own law of shadows was quickly assimilated, but he held the advantage of being here in person, so he could use far more laws than his opponent's two clones.
Shadows quickly enveloped the clones of Austin and Kenneth. Even if the shadows were assimilated in the blink of an eye, it was still enough to delay them for a little while.
And all Gu Nan needed was just this little while.
One punch!
Gu Nan landed a heavy punch, directly punching through the holy light making up Austin's clone. Sparkling, translucent dots of light scattered throughout their surroundings and were instantly swallowed up by the shadows.
But Austin didn't hesitate in the slightest. He swung the sword down again, hitting Gu Nan square on the shoulder.
But it was still… useless!historical
The clone's absolute power was insufficient, and the sublime characteristics of the law of light alone was not enough to harm the post-Second Round Evil God physique.
On the contrary, Gu Nan's fists didn't pause at all. Each punch pierced straight through Austin's body and destroyed the laws attached to the clone, consuming Austin's power to the maximum extent.
Apart from saint clones, which walked among mortals, gods' clones were essentially a fusion of portions of their Godhead and laws.
The separated Godhead fragment acted as a core, directing the laws to attack enemies. So while the quality of the clone's laws weren't inferior to their original body, the total amount was far inferior, and they also weren't protected by a god's divine body.
Gu Nan was all too familiar with the gods' methods and made the most correct decision every step of the way. Facing him, the two greater gods' clones couldn't actually do much in response.
Just like this, Gu Nan flat-out tanked the holy sword's attacks and threw hundreds of punches in just half an instant, turning the clone of holy light into a sieve riddled with holes.
The holy light collapsed instantly and was swallowed up by the all-consuming shadows. Without its driving force, the holy flames also stopped burning and quickly sank into the shadows.
Gu Nan reached out and grabbed a crystal object from inside the collapsing holy light. It was the remaining fragment of Austin's Godhead.
He put the Godhead away and moved his gaze to the purple mist on the sidelines.
Ruler of Nightmares, Kenneth. This greater god who discovered the actions of Cloud Dream Cult's cultists and personally planned the illegal crossing this time didn't even intend to say anything as the purple mist quickly tried to escape into the void.
However, he too had no room to escape as the shadows swept over him. The power of the dream realm could not affect Gu Nan, so he could only watch as his own laws were exhausted.
In just a few short minutes, Gu Nan already had fragments of two greater gods' Godheads in his hands. The whole process flowed very naturally, as if he'd done this kind of thing countless times before.
On the side, Dream Immortal and Huo Kui exchanged confused glances.
Even if they were only two clones, they were still greater god-level clones. How come they looked just like normal gods at Gu Nan's hands?
After Gu Nan took the two Godheads, he had no intention of returning to the Divine Kingdom, instead appearing before Dream Immortal and Huo Kui.
Huo Kui had already removed his full body golden armor at this time, actually possessing a graceful appearance. He was originally a scholar and took the name "Kui[1]
" for himself. He didn't expect to eventually embark on the path of military enlistment by pure chance.
Seeing Gu Nan's arrival, he took the initiative to say, "Since you already entered Unified Dao, head to Void Grotto Heaven whenever you have time. Yu Lian will arrange for us all to meet."
Huo Kui was the first to speak, having already acknowledged Gu Nan's status as an existence in the same realm as himself.
Gu Nan nodded. At his current level, he could already see these Unified Dao cultivators' relative power levels. Huo Kui and Dream Immortal were both relatively powerful ones among the Unified Dao group.
In terms of levels, they were probably around Tier 13.
Of course, the same sentence still applied—when it came to Unified Dao Realm, one's level was often just a reference. Even Song Fei, whose laws weren't very special, possessed the possibility of defeating them, although that possibility was at most 20% to 30%.
Gu Nan then looked at Dream Immortal. "Are you Lou Wanying's mother?"
The corner of Dream Immortal's mouth twitched slightly, not knowing how to respond for a while. She could only answer in a low voice, "That's right."
Without another word, Gu Nan swung a punch straight at Dream Immortal's face.
Dream Immortal's entire body instantly turned illusory, causing Gu Nan's punch to miss, but it still caused damage to her laws.
"How impudent!" A cold snort came from the void, and the frightening power of the dream realm swelled up again, directly covering Gu Nan's entire Divine Kingdom.
This time, Dream Immortal personally took action. Once she finished her attack, it would probably be a real killing move, enough to erase the consciousness of all living beings inside the Divine Kingdom.
But a golden brilliance slowly emerged, blocking the space between the two. Huo Kui said helplessly, "Gu Nan, please wait a minute… Dream Immortal will not seek revenge on you."
Only then did Gu Nan stop his movements and looked at Huo Kui doubtfully. After confirming the relationship between Dream Immortal and Lou Wanying, of course he had to strike first.
But Huo Kui explained, "We, the Unified Dao cultivators, have had an agreement since long ago. Unified Dao means transcending worldliness and detaching oneself, so all the previous grudges are wiped clean. This is why Song Fei will not pursue the matter of Graceful Heaven… Well, unless they're mortal enemies."
To think there was such an agreement between Unified Dao powers. Gu Nan had never heard anyone mention it, but he still subconsciously asked, "What's considered a mortal enemy?"
Huo Kui glanced at him. "Like Zi Luo."
T/N:
[1]Kui = Sunflower
There was indeed such an agreement among Unified Dao powers.
It could be said that it was impossible for any Star Ruler to avoid conflicts with others while advancing.
For the Star Rulers qualified to ascend to Unified Dao, offending a certain Unified Dao existence in the process was a very likely event.historical
For example, Xue Ren had a certain conflict of laws with Zou Jiming, so their relationship had never been very harmonious.
He did have a very good relationship with Yu Lian, which was also a tradition left from the past. Otherwise, if he just offended everyone without making allies, he might be ambushed when breaking through to Unified Dao.
It was also to protect those who entered this realm later that such an agreement was made between the Unified Dao cultivators. Once a newcomer ascended to this realm, all previous grievances and grudges other Unified Dao powers had against them would be erased, and they would start with a clean slate from now on.
Of course, Song Fei's situation—where he directly caused Zi Luo Elder's cultivation realm to fall, unable to recover for tens of thousands of years—was another matter entirely.
"That's indeed true," Yu Lian sat across from Gu Nan and confirmed Huo Kui's statement.
This wasn't Void Grotto Heaven. Rather, Yu Lian personally came over to meet Gu Nan. The implication behind her words was that she wanted to pull Gu Nan into her faction.
While it was true that the Unified Dao powers in the Myriad Heavens didn't have clear-cut factions like the two major godly factions next door, they were still more or less divided into unofficial factions.
For example, Jiu Po and Song Fei were relatively close, and Song Fei had a good relationship with Qin Guanruo, so they could be said to be one faction.
Gu Nan had always been closer to Yu Lian due to his relationship with the Heaven-God Alliance and Xue Ren, so it was normal for Yu Lian to try to win him over immediately.
"In other words, neither Song Fei nor Dream Immortal will trouble me because of old grudges?"
"Yes and no." Yu Lian explained with a half-smile, "The agreement is just an agreement. If one day you no longer have Unified Dao Realm power, they most likely won't let you go."
Gu Nan finally nodded. To put it bluntly, this so-called agreement simply gave everyone an excuse to de-escalate the situation so that it wouldn't have to develop into a life-and-death struggle.
It was quite hard for a Unified Dao cultivator to kill an opponent on the same level. But how can they give an account to their subordinates in situations where their disciples and children died at other people's hands?
Since it was hard to give an account, just create an agreement like this. As for when they need to take action… They don't have to abide by the agreement at all.
"Dream Immortal has just returned and still needs to deal with her former organization's affairs. And after you ascended, Zi Luo was able to stabilize his injuries." Yu Lian continued, "I will call a meeting with everyone after those two handle their respective affairs. The date will be one month later."
"Okay." Gu Nan had no objections and nodded.
Yu Lian cast Gu Nan another meaningful glance. "We suddenly gained three more Unified Dao members this time, but both of the other two are old members. You're the only newcomer. There are some matters I will tell you when the time comes."
Gu Nan glanced at her. There was obviously something hidden in her words, but since Yu Lian didn't want to explain it now, it would be better to wait a month.
Anyhow, it was unlikely to be as bad as "the world is about to be destroyed, so the Unified Dao powers need to take turns defending it" or "there's an invasion of foreign enemies, and the Unified Dao cultivators need to take turns guarding the border" or something like that.
Seeing as how Song Fei still had time to start a war against the World of Gods, Gu Nan knew those situations wouldn't be the case here.
After the two agreed, Yu Lian had no intention of staying any longer and quickly disappeared.
It was already two days after Gu Nan's advancement. Everything had settled down. The gods all retreated, and the overall war entered a sluggish state.
The Myriad Heavens wouldn't know what the gods were thinking, and they also had no time to care, because they were all busy welcoming the arrival of a new Unified Dao powerhouse.
Prior to this, although Gu Nan's reputation was well-known, it had always been a mix of praise and criticism, but now it became one-sided praise.
No one dared to make comments such as "unstable foundation", "narrow-minded and made too many enemies", or "vicious and unscrupulous actions" any longer.
Even the classic battles since Gu Nan's debut were made into case studies for all of the Myriad Heavens to analyze, and then people discovered… there was nothing to analyze at all.
How can a fellow who debuted less than a century ago and shot to the level of Unified Dao like a rocket be analyzed?
Favored by luck? Nope. Monstrous genius? Ridiculously monstrous. Unswerving determination? Can't really tell. The Heavenly Dao rewards diligence? Nonexistent. A late bloomer… Late, your foot!
Analysts from all major forces began to burst into tears. If they could still use "his breakthroughs were too hasty, so his foundation is unstable" as an excuse in the past, now they really didn't know what to say.
That was, until news spread from somewhere that Gu Nan was actually not a mortal, but the reincarnation of an ancient Evil God from the World of Gods. It was precisely because of this that the greater gods were so determined to kill him.
This news won the immediate approval of the majority of analysts as soon as it came out.
Reincarnation of a powerhouse!
They finally found a reason for his absurd growth rate. They really did go to great lengths to make the story sound reasonable.
And as the "Evil God theory" spread far and wide—gaining more people's acknowledgement—and more information about Gu Nan's history was uncovered, a new problem emerged.
How did a great power from the World of Gods reincarnate into the Myriad Heavens?
Due to the existence of the dimensional wall between the two worlds, it could be said that there was no way to cross except for space-time crystals, and reincarnation was even more out of the question.
This triggered a wave of research on "cross-border reincarnation". Many people wanted to sneak into the World of Gods this way, but that's another story.
Gu Nan himself didn't pay attention to the turbulent discussions outside. He never cared for other people's opinions.
Gu Nan was sitting in his Divine Kingdom and watching Red Tail bring in batches of lists, all of which were cultivators who applied to join the Divine Kingdom.
Because Gu Nan prohibited outsiders from entering his astral world, after several waves of killings, no one dared to trespass anymore and obediently submitted applications instead.
Those who could be selected by Red Tail were absolutely not bottom-of-the-barrel, and many of them were even Star Rulers.
Joining a Unified Dao power's astral world was definitely not a bad thing for Star Rulers. If others found out about it, they wouldn't feel embarrassed but would feel honored instead.
As a matter of fact, the vast majority of weak Star Rulers lived in the astral worlds of Unified Dao existences and used it as their regular residence.
There was slight worry on Red Tail's face. "My Lord, if we don't let these people in, I'm afraid…"
"There's nothing to worry about. Tell them all to fuck off. I don't need outsiders in my astral world," Gu Nan waved his hand and said rudely.
After the Second Round, the law buff that the Divine Kingdom could provide was far less powerful than in the First Round.
And the subsequent arrangements that Gu Nan would make for his Divine Kingdom—more accurately, the purge that would be carried out in it—required full control over the Divine Kingdom. There was no room for these outsiders.
Rather than kicking them out when the time came, it would be better to not let them in at all.
"Oh right." Gu Nan added, "Since I've already reached Unified Dao, let's change the Divine Kingdom's name. This time, it'll be called 'This World is Full Do Not Join' Heaven."
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When news came out that Gu Nan had once again changed his astral world's name, his acquaintances didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"He doesn't want anyone to interfere with his astral world that badly?" Xue Ren sat calmly across from Zi Luo Elder, chuckling over Gu Nan's matter.
He was once known as "the one closest to Unified Dao", but now… Well, he still was the one closest to Unified Dao; someone merely shot past him.
However, Xue Ren didn't seem to mind such an embarrassing situation at all. At least, nothing could be seen from his face.
Zi Luo Elder was still smiling, but his complexion looked much better than before.
His law was very special and was related to "organizations", so his self-advancement path was to develop organizations. It could be said that the Heaven-God Alliance was his main foundation.
If Xue Ren, a pillar of the Heaven-God Alliance, broke through to Unified Dao, it would be enough to fully recover all of Zi Luo Elder's injuries, and he would even get to advance further than he ever had.
After all, Gu Nan wasn't a diehard loyalist of the Heaven-God Alliance, and his ascension did not help Zi Luo Elder as much as he had imagined.
"Gu Nan always has his own goals behind everything he does, but they are unfathomable to others." Zi Luo Elder chuckled.
Xue Ren nodded. "Everyone has their own path."
Zi Luo Elder stared at Xue Ren with a deep gaze. "After taking this path, you will not be able to turn back. Now that my injury has stabilized, you no longer have to hurry."
Even if he wasn't a diehard Heaven-God Alliance loyalist, Gu Nan's advancement still greatly extended Zi Luo Elder's lifespan. The ten-year time limit no longer existed; he could afford to wait now.
Everyone could see that Xue Ren would definitely break through within a hundred years, and Zi Luo Elder would also officially return by then, so the Unified Dao figures already regarded Zi Luo Elder as a member of the "Unified Dao Club".
Xue Ren said expressionlessly, "We can't wait any longer. I have a hunch that what Austin said… may not be impossible."
"You mean, Gu Nan will cause the world to collapse?" Zi Luo Elder shook his head. "Even if you have a premonition, you still cannot win other people's trust with just a hunch."
The Star Rulers here were not gods. The Unified Dao powerhouses all reached this point by relying on their own cultivation, step-by-step, and not the faith of all living beings.
So they didn't believe in any legends at all; they only believed in themselves. They had absolute confidence in themselves. Even existences at the same level as them would find it hard to destroy them, let alone completely destroy everyone.
Of course Xue Ren knew this, but that didn't mean he would give up. "That's precisely why I have to hurry."
Zi Luo Elder stared at him for a long time, then finally gave a soft sigh. "Alright. I have a unique secret technique that no one else in the world knows, which can help you hide until the critical moment."
"Many thanks."
……
Gu Nan didn't care what other people were doing. He was busy tinkering with new things in his own Divine Kingdom.
Two crystal-clear Godheads floated in front of him, and Gu Nan was using his own law of shadows to erase the divine imprints in them bit by bit.
These two Godheads were naturally Austin and Kenneth's Godhead fragments that Gu Nan captured from their clones.
If Godheads on this level could have their ownership imprints purged, they would undoubtedly become extremely precious items.
More importantly, being able to control two greater god-level Godheads—even mere fragments—would be of great help to Gu Nan's next operation.
After the player's Second Round, the only key to self-improvement was Evil Value while points became supplementary.
In fact, this had always been the case, but in the Divine Kingdom phase, points were necessary to upgrade the Evil God Temple's level, which was why they became particularly important.historical
Earning Evil Value by killing gods was still a viable option, but the problem with this was… there weren't enough gods to kill.
The total number of gods in the entire World of Gods probably didn't exceed a thousand. Among them were a large number of low-level gods with very few followers, and the proportion of high-level gods was very small.
Previously, just to advance to Tier 10, many high-level gods had been killed, and the remaining gods were definitely not enough for Gu Nan to reach Tier 15.
For example, just to advance to Tier 12, he would need to have an Evil Value of 200,000, which was a full 70,000 difference from his current Evil Value.
Therefore, if he wanted to continue earning Evil Value, he must find a sustainable, long-term method, and the method given in the game was very simple: to cultivate blasphemers.
What was a blasphemer?
To put it simply, they were former believers who fell and abandoned their faith.
Blasphemy is sin, and blasphemy by a blasphemer's hands is undoubtedly an even greater sin. Therefore, the ultimate goal of cultivating a blasphemer is for them to personally kill the god they originally worshiped.
It was precisely because of the existence of this final goal that players were only able to use this method to earn Evil Value after completing the Second Round.
After all, having the blasphemer kill the god themself meant the blasphemer needed to be trained into a new god, which could only be done after the Second Round.
It was just like how Gu Nan obtained a water-type Godhead in his early years and gave it to Lan Si, but the current Lan Si could no longer be regarded as a true god.
Strictly speaking, Lan Si was also a blasphemer, but if he expected her to kill Rolensia, Gu Nan might as well just complete the mission himself.
Although Gu Nan could use his own power to accelerate the blasphemer's growth, he wouldn't be able to hide the Evil God's aura on the blasphemer. They would be easily discovered, so it was a waste of money.
The best method was to provide the blasphemers with a high-level Godhead so that they can grow quickly and reach the point where they can kill gods.
The power of shadows was still surging, constantly purging the divinity imprints from the two Godhead fragments in the air, one white and one purple.
The white fragment from Austin remained motionless, as if it was completely unaffected by the power of shadows, but the Nightmare Godhead was already swaying.
From purely a laws perspective, Gu Nan was only at Tier 11, so it would be a bit more difficult to rewrite Austin's godhead.
On the other hand, Ruler of Nightmares Kenneth was merely at Tier 13, and because he only played a supporting role in this battle, he used a very small fragment of his Godhead this time. The internal laws were almost completely cleansed.
"I'll finish Kenneth's first and keep the Tier 15 Godhead for later." Gu Nan originally had the attitude of giving it a try. Seeing this situation, he immediately made a decision.
As long as he had a greater god's Godhead in hand, he would have a way to cultivate the first blasphemer. As for later… he could simply retrieve the Godhead after the blasphemy was completed.
"Call Red Tail over," Gu Nan's voice traveled out from the Evil God Temple and was quickly conveyed to Red Tail through Yan Xiaoxiao.
"My Lord." Red Tail quickly walked in. She didn't need to prepare for any wars recently, so she also had a little free time and looked a bit stout.
"You'll be busy again in the future." Gu Nan patted her on the shoulder. "White Mist is going to build a new branch."
"What branch?"
"World of Gods branch."
"The World of Gods?" Red Tail suddenly felt dizzy. She couldn't imagine why the one before her would want to establish a branch there when the war was still at a stalemate.
Gu Nan nodded. "Don't worry, the war is coming to an end. I'll write another manual in two days to create a complete ceasefire between the two sides."
Red Tail couldn't help asking curiously, "W-What manual?"
"Gods' Hunting Protection Manual."
As the author of the Weak Gods Hunting Manual, Gu Nan certainly knew what key points were worth paying attention to and what loopholes could be exploited by the gods in advance.
As long as the difficulty of the God Hunt increased—causing the costs and benefits to return to a normal ratio—the wave of God Hunts would no longer be as frenzied and would inevitably turn into a small-scale activity.
The corner of Red Tail's mouth twitched slightly. She hesitantly ventured, "But… if My Lord wants to instigate another war in the future…"
"Won't I just have to write a Hunting Manual 2.0?" Gu Nan answered with a shrug and glanced at Red Tail. "You're very talkative today. Don't want to go to the World of Gods?"
"It's not that…" Red Tail replied speechlessly. She'd been bored sick these days and longed for something to do, but running to the World of Gods was indeed a bit sudden.
However, as Gu Nan's most useful subordinate, Red Tail quickly adjusted her mentality and said with a serious expression, "I understand. May I inquire about the main goal behind establishing a branch office this time?"
"To collect intelligence, especially information from the main planes." Gu Nan thought for a while and added, "I need you to help me find some good seedlings. They must be people who originally believed in gods but later experienced a collapse in faith."
"What if the other party's faith has always been firm?"
"Then find a way to make them fall," Gu Nan answered without even looking up. "Lan Si will go with you; she'll be a good guide. Bring Xie Yun and the others with you as well; they can be used as hired thugs."
The so-called "Xie Yun and the others" referred to Xie Yun, An Tiansheng, and Liang Ruxin.
Although Gu Nan's player army didn't have many members, practically all of them were elites, especially Xie Yun, An Tiansheng, and Liang Ruxin, who had all advanced to Tier 5 by now.
For mortals, Tier 5 was equivalent to a Star Ruler or god.
Among them, Xie Yun and An Tiansheng relied on the special characteristics of their routes to a certain extent, while Liang Ruxin relied entirely on his own talent and enlightenment to reach this point after having a clear-cut direction to go in.
Under Gu Nan's arrangement, almost all the major high-end forces in the Divine Kingdom were mobilized.
Red Tail knew this meant that the focus of Gu Nan's subsequent plans would be in the World of Gods, so she quickly responded, "Yes, I will set off today."
……
The plans in the World of Gods were already underway, but establishing an intelligence organization from scratch would not happen overnight.
Fortunately, with the support of an experienced administrator like Red Tail and a group of powerful subordinates, the progress was quite fast.
Gu Nan had already completed the Second Round. It could be said that he truly had the ability to defend himself now. He no longer had to urgently level up like before and could stop and enjoy life occasionally.
For example… playing a few rounds of black cards.
"This game is very simple," Yu Lian said, having managed to defeat Gu Nan for the first time on the third day of their card battles.
Gu Nan didn't mind and said with a smile, "Try to beat me three times in a row?"
After all, black cards was a card game with limited rules. For veritable top-tier powerhouses, their win rates were all basically about 50%. What really determined the outcome was luck.historical
However, compared to the former Sylvia, Yu Lian, who looked like a Daoist nun, was already extremely talented, and her progress was astonishingly fast.
After leaving the Divine Kingdom, Gu Nan ran to Void Grotto Heaven to play cards with Yu Lian.
Anyhow, he had nothing to do recently. He could only wait for the Unified Dao meeting in Void Grotto Heaven to be held, so he might as well come early and wait.
He already finished making arrangements in his Divine Kingdom, and once Red Tail gathered enough people on that side, he could automatically start a screening mechanism to select candidates who were qualified to inherit the Godhead fragments.
After losing two consecutive rounds, Yu Lian calmly pushed away the cards and pretended to get to business, "Zou Jiming said he wants to talk to you. Why don't you go meet him?"
……
Atalante.
In this war-torn continent, a large number of civilians were displaced, and a large number of believers were unable to receive protection during the war. Eventually, they lost their faith and became unbelievers.
Vivian was one such girl.
She worshiped the Goddess of Radiance ever since she was a child. Even though her god had little divine power, Vivian had always firmly believed that gods couldn't be ranked purely by the strength of their divine powers.
Righteousness triumphed in the world; power was not the absolute truth.
Until one day… When war came, Vivian finally learned the harsh reality.
That day, the girl's town suffered a sudden attack. The evil invaders destroyed her home and massacred her relatives.
Originally, the young girl thought she was going to die too. Fortunately, a god with medium divine power performed a miracle, but he was unable to protect everyone and could only selectively protect a group of people.
Therefore, this god's believers naturally became the first batch of protection targets, and Vivian was lucky enough to be selected as the second batch, but her older brother was not so lucky.
After watching her brother die tragically under the enemy's slaughter, the pious girl finally understood the truth of life.
There must be power first, then righteousness.
Now, after two months of hellish war, Vivian had grown from a young girl into a mature female mercenary.
Her fair skin turned dark, and she frequented the tavern. She burned the priest's robe that she had yearned to wear when she was young and put on a tight long coat. Her hands were already stained with blood.
She'd even completely forgotten all the divine arts. Now, she only knew how to kill people with a machete.
She became strong, brave, and even heartless, like a rose covered with thorns. Only in the dead of night would she recall the helplessness of her loved ones as they died, and she would crave power even more.
Until one day, a mysterious voice rang in her ears.
"Do you want power?"
"Do you want to protect your everything?"
"Do you… want eternal life?"
This voice seemed to be torturing Vivian's soul, and she could not go against her heart. 'Of course I want it! Power! Give me more power!'
When such thoughts fell, Vivian felt her vision go dark, and her consciousness seemed to fall into a drowsy state.
When she woke up next, the girl carefully opened her eyes, only to find that she was in a jungle, with some people nearby and a small sign not far away.
It's just that the style of the houses here was very strange. It seemed to be different from any kind of civilization she knew. Even the text on the nearby sign was made of unfamiliar square-shaped characters.
"What… does this say?" Vivian stared at the sign curiously.
"Are you new? There are common language interpretations next to it," a voice sounded near Vivian as a tall woman slowly walked over.
Vivian quickly turned her head to look, and sure enough, she saw familiar words that clearly read:
[Welcome to the Greater God Dimension]
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[Mission Location: Ghost Sea World]
[Mission Goal: Assist the Heavenly City Floating Island forces in defeating the invaders]
[Mission Difficulty: Three Stars]
The tall blonde, Nancy, couldn't help frowning when the mission details were revealed. "It's a three-star mission. Vivian, don't come with us this time."
A three-star mission normally required three or more Tier 3 members for a greater chance of success.
Nancy's team did have three Tier 3 members, but if they took Vivian with them, they might not be able to protect her.
"Big Sis Nancy, I can do it!" Vivian insisted, "I'm already a Tier 2 mercenary. If Adam doesn't use his laws, he sometimes even loses to me!"
The blue-haired young man on the side denied resentfully, "I was just careless that time! And I only… I only lost to you once…"
Before Adam could finish, Vivian glared right back at him, and his voice trailed off.
It had been nearly a month since Vivian came to this mysterious place. She basically figured out the rules here and also experienced a rapid growth in strength.
In one short month, she grew from a normal mercenary who only knew some fighting skills to a Tier 2 expert.
While it was true that much of this was thanks to the support provided by the Greater God Dimension, these results were also inseparable from Vivian's own efforts and talent.
Nancy stared at her for a while, then finally nodded. "Alright, if you insist. But you have to promise to follow my commands at all times."
"I will!" Vivian said excitedly.
……
Ghost Sea World.
Nancy took Vivian, Adam, and another Tier 3 teammate—a little boy named Jonathan who was adept at using bows. The four of them swiftly moved through the terrain.
"The mission requires us to assist the Heavenly City Floating Island in battle, but we must first understand the situation and figure out who our enemies and allies are," Nancy said calmly, looking like a dignified female boss.
"In the past, some teams were treated as spies by friendly forces due to their rash actions and executed." Nancy was afraid that some team members might get careless, so she added, "Dying in the Greater God Dimension means dying for real…"
"Boss, we get it. You've said this almost twenty times." Adam patted the greatsword on his waist and adjusted his posture into a more comfortable one as they moved forward. "And none of the people who died in the Greater God Dimension came back. Who knows whether they died or returned…"
In everyone's eyes, the so-called "returned" naturally meant returning to the World of Gods, which was what they considered the main plane.
"Then you can try it," Nancy interrupted angrily, glaring at Adam.
Vivian stood to the side and exchanged a glance with Jonathan, the archer. She couldn't help covering her mouth to hide her chuckle. The first time she saw Sister Nancy arguing with Adam, she thought they were going to quarrel.
Later, it was Jonathan who told her that those two actually came from the same continent and entered the Greater God Dimension at almost the same time. They had supported each other until now, and their relationship was so good that they could sleep together.
When the two finished bickering, Vivian interjected curiously, "Do you think the Greater God Dimension was really built by a greater god?"
This was the boring part of the journey, so the three of them didn't mind chatting with Vivian for a while.
Adam was the first to respond, "Probably. No matter which god established this, normal gods would never dare name this place the 'Greater God Dimension'."
Adam showed no respect at all when discussing the gods and even had a bit of ridicule in his voice.
If this was her past self, Vivian would probably be very dissatisfied with his attitude, but now, not only did she not mind this, she even felt faint elation.
The god she once devoutly believed in did not protect her in the face of death, so what was the meaning of her piety?
On the contrary, Adam's words now gave Vivian a strange pleasure, as if entering a forbidden realm and tasting forbidden fruit.
……historical
"Subject No. 29 is currently performing well."
Inside White Mist, a man wearing white work clothes looked away from No. 29's records and wrote down his own evaluation.
"No. 29, is that the girl named Vivian?" The man heard a voice behind him and quickly turned around, only to see Red Tail already standing there.
"Yes." The man said respectfully, "My Lord, you personally brought her back."
Red Tail nodded. When she was in the World of Gods, she set out to establish the White Mist branch and also selected talents from all the major planes, especially those who'd already lost their faith.
As for the seedlings who still worshiped their gods, White Mist had to make arrangements on that side to destroy their faiths one by one.
On the other hand, people like Vivian—who already lost their faiths—were very suitable for in-depth cultivation, so they were taken directly back to the Myriad Heavens, entering the "Greater God Dimension" established by Gu Nan himself.
As for why it was necessary to build a Greater God Dimension… Even the name was chosen by Gu Nan himself, so Red Tail certainly couldn't object.
Red Tail nodded, and after carefully checking Vivian's records, she ordered, "Have Adam die in this mission. He can talk to Vivian a little before he dies."
The man in work clothes quickly agreed, but then pointed out, "It's just… the blasphemy evaluation of Subject No. 29 is only average. We need Adam's existence to cultivate the subject's quality in this field."
But Red Tail insisted, "Just arrange for a new person to join the team. Your original training method is too slow. Vivian's potential is greater than you think."
……
Red Tail was naturally responsible for cultivating blasphemers in the Greater God Dimension. Gu Nan never paid attention to matters there ever since he finished setting up the Greater God Dimension.
He stayed in Void Grotto Heaven and met the Unified Dao cultivators, who visited one after another.
Even Song Fei was no exception. The top powerhouse in charge of Academic Heaven gave Gu Nan a kind smile for the first time and specifically told him not to take past matters to heart.
Now that Gu Nan ascended to Unified Dao, based on the agreement, all previous grudges would be wiped clean—even though Song Fei was the one who tried his best to kill Gu Nan before he actually entered Unified Dao.
Of course Gu Nan didn't take such words to heart. Anyhow, if they wanted to fall out, these Unified Dao figures could fall out at any time. The agreement was just hot air.
Except for Zi Luo Elder and Dream Immortal, Gu Nan saw all of the Myriad Heavens' original Thirteen Heavens one by one this time, and the first person he met was Zou Jiming.
This somewhat talkative Star Ruler of Weapon Martial Heaven didn't provide much help to Gu Nan; he just came to chat.
In fact, most of these meetings were idle chatter. After all, they didn't really have many dealings with Gu Nan. The only Unified Dao cultivators Gu Nan truly interacted with were Song Fei, Lu Wen, Zi Luo Elder, etc.
It wasn't until one person's appearance that Gu Nan gained some new insights.
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There was one person among the Thirteen Heavens whom Gu Nan had heard of a long time ago but never personally met.
This person was the Star Ruler of Jiu Po Heaven, Jiu Po.
Jiu Po was one of the oldest Unified Dao cultivators in the Myriad Heavens, almost being in the same generation as Zi Luo Elder. And ever since he entered Unified Dao, he'd always been the most mysterious existence among them.
Just how mysterious?
It could be said that no more than thirty people in the entire Myriad Heavens knew what Jiu Po looked like, and this number even included all the Unified Dao figures.
Today, Gu Nan became another person who saw Jiu Po's true appearance.
However, upon actually meeting Jiu Po, one would feel that there was nothing exceptional about this person. Seeing him was the same as not seeing him. His face was completely average and looked like a middle-aged uncle. He smiled all day long, utterly lacking the vibes of a mysterious final boss.
Based on the exhaustibility of human appearances, there might be hundreds of guys who resembled him in all the major planes.
"Gu Nan, I've wanted to get to know you for a long time," Jiu Po greeted Gu Nan with a smile on his face.
Gu Nan glanced at him. "I heard you're on Song Fei's side?"
Song Fei was only able to ascend to Unified Dao due to Jiu Po's assistance. If it weren't for his help, Song Fei alone would never have been able to bring about Zi Luo Elder's fall.
But Jiu Po shook his head. "It's more accurate to say that I invested in him."
"Isn't that the same?" Gu Nan shrugged. "If Song Fei dies, then you won't be able to get a return on your investment, so won't you still be forced to help him?"
Jiu Po smiled in response to such a view. "There are exceptions. For example, if I invest in a new target, and the return on this new target is higher."
Gu Nan finally nodded in understanding. "So you want to invest in me? What kind of capital can you invest?"
"I can help you kill gods." Jiu Po said without changing his expression, "Greater gods."historical
……
The newest Unified Dao meeting finally began, with a total of sixteen people present this time.
They were made of the original Thirteen Heavens headed by Yu Lian, plus Gu Nan, Zi Luo Elder, and Dream Immortal. The return of two old comrades and the ascension of a newcomer turned the Thirteen Heavens directly into the "Sixteen Heavens."
If nothing else happened, from this day forward, the name "Sixteen Heavens" would be known to the world and would be used to describe the most powerful group of people in the Myriad Heavens.
These Sixteen Heavens were: Void Grotto Heaven, God Emperor Heaven, Jiu Po Heaven… as well as This World is Full Do Not Join Heaven.
Sixteen Unified Dao cultivators gathered in Void Grotto Heaven. This was the first time Gu Nan saw so many Unified Dao existences appearing in one place at the same time, even though he had already met all of them individually just recently.
Yu Lian sat in the main seat, and to either side of her were Jiu Po and a solemn-looking young man, who was the Star Ruler of God Emperor Heaven, Human King Zhao.
In the history of the Myriad Heavens, the ancient era did not have myriad planes like now. Instead, it was divided into only three realms: Heaven, Earth, and Human.
The three realms were not isolated from each other, and the ancient cultivators were able to travel freely among them.
That was, until a great cataclysm shook the world. The three realms crumbled, splitting into countless large and small planes.
However, the most essential parts of each of the three realms were preserved and managed by the three Saints of that time. These three places were passed down from generation to generation to this day and were still within the ranks of Unified Dao.
The Heaven Realm was governed by the authentic direct branch of Daoism, which became today's Void Grotto Heaven. The Earth Realm, which had lost the power of underworld reincarnation, became a normal plane and was today's Jiu Po Heaven. On the other hand, the Human Realm developed and evolved over tens of thousands of generations, producing many great powers belonging to the human race. Thus, it became God Emperor Heaven.
This was the origin of the three oldest astral worlds—Void Grotto Heaven, God Emperor Heaven, and Jiu Po Heaven.
Of course, the current masters of these three astral worlds were no longer the original three Saints. Even Jiu Po, the oldest among them, was not the first ruler of Jiu Po Heaven.
However, unlike the other two realms—which were passed down through inheritance—Jiu Po stole the Earth Realm's core from the Saint's successor after the Saint's death, then changed its name to Jiu Po Heaven.
Nowadays, whenever people talk about Jiu Po Heaven, the core of their discussion is still on its origins, which shows how mighty this past feat was.
Gu Nan shifted his gaze away from Jiu Po and looked at Yu Lian and Human King Zhao. Both of these people inherited their astral worlds from their predecessors after it was passed down for many generations.
As the origin of Daoism, Void Grotto Heaven had always been said to be the leader of all planes. Therefore, whenever a new Unified Dao cultivator appeared, Void Grotto Heaven would always preside over the meeting.
God Emperor Heaven, however, was more interesting. Every Star Ruler of this astral world would change their names to Human King. The only difference was their surnames.
Compared with Void Grotto Heaven's attitude of intervening in everything, God Emperor Heaven was more like a self-contained astral world.
It wasn't completely closed to the outside world like Gu Nan's, but those who wanted to join God Emperor Heaven needed to undergo a strict review process. The majority of this astral world's population growth was through internal reproduction.
To put it simply, the primary mission of each generation of Human Kings was to protect their own astral world so that the flames of the human race could burn forever in God Emperor Heaven.
As for the happenings outside, that had nothing to do with them.
"I've convened this meeting because new Unified Dao cultivators have emerged. Zi Luo and Dream Immortal are old friends, and I imagine everyone has already met Gu Nan," Yu Lian didn't put on any airs, starting off very directly.
She was also aware that Void Grotto Heaven's title as the so-called leader of the Myriad Heavens was just in name. If any conflicts of interest popped up, no one would care about that at all.
Only when something troublesome like this needed to be hosted would everyone remember that such a title even existed.
"Based on customs." Yu Lian stood up and said to Gu Nan, "Gu Nan, you need to offer incense to the seniors, and the seniors… Forget it, you probably don't want to do it either. Let's just get down to business."
Halfway through Yu Lian's sentence, she thought about it and decided not to ask, simply moving on to the next step.
When talking about business, Yu Lian's expression turned serious, staring at Gu Nan. "Though we Unified Dao cultivators have great freedom in the world, we also have to bear the heavy responsibility of the world."
"What do you mean? Don't tell me we really need to save the world?" Gu Nan couldn't help asking, remembering some of his earlier jokes.
"Not like that…" Yu Lian replied somewhat speechlessly. "It's our responsibility to maintain the normal operation of the Myriad Heavens and cultivate more powerful Star Rulers."
Gu Nan flat-out ignored the matter of cultivating Star Rulers. However, Yu Lian's earlier sentence made him frown slightly. "The operation of the Myriad Heavens is maintained by Unified Dao powers?"
"Strictly speaking, yes." Yu Lian nodded. "When you first became a Star Ruler and started looking for your own astral world, you should have been to a place called the Inner World."
After a pause, she continued, "In a sense, the Inner World does not exist. It is an artificial control center we created by gathering everyone's power."
Gu Nan suddenly had a flash of understanding. All the questions he had about entering and leaving the Inner World back then were explained at this moment.
No wonder the existence of the Inner World was so strange, as if it was provided solely to facilitate the Star Rulers' search for an astral world.
No wonder he'd never heard of an equivalent place in the World of Gods, which was similar in nature to the Myriad Heavens.
And no wonder the laws inside the Inner World seemed mechanical and lifeless. It turned out that they were artificially created…
"What exactly do we need to do?" Gu Nan couldn't help feeling curious.
Yu Lian didn't answer directly but pointed to the side. "Ask Li Ci to take you to the Inner World. You'll understand as soon as you see it again. It's his turn to be on duty this time."
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"Daoist Friend Gu Nan, please come with me," Li Ci smiled plainly and said to Gu Nan.
The two of them had arrived in the Inner World at this time, with Li Ci walking in front and guiding Gu Nan in a certain direction.
Li Ci was a handsome young man with sword-shaped eyebrows and starry eyes, but his actual age was much older than Lu Wen. He could be regarded as a powerhouse from the mid-antiquity era.
One of the most famous feats about Li Ci was naturally how he used his endless combination of techniques to escape from another Unified Dao existence before he even entered Unified Dao.
From that day on, no one dared to provoke Li Ci casually. He was practically treated as a future Unified Dao cultivator.
Li Ci also did not disappoint the world. Over a thousand years later, he successfully broke through to Unified Dao and became a powerhouse.
The current Li Ci was considered a Tier 13 cultivator, surpassing even Song Fei, who ascended earlier than him. It was only a matter of time before he surpassed others.
Of course, the primary issue he faced right now was not being caught up too quickly by Gu Nan.
Gu Nan followed Li Ci and slowly stepped through the Inner World's gates, then saw the familiar and unfamiliar Inner World.
This wasn't his first time coming to the Inner World. Back when he was only at Tier 3, he accidentally entered this place because of the personal dungeon.
It was during that experience that he met Zuo Zuo and the others, which led to the series of subsequent events.
Later, in order to earn Evil Value and points, Gu Nan also used the Inner World as a dungeon center and came here to find new dungeons.
After formally finishing the First Round and entering the Divine Kingdom phase, the Inner World that briefly appeared in Gu Nan's vision finally completely withdrew from the stage of history.
But now that Gu Nan returned, his perception of the Inner World was completely different from before.
There were still countless bright dots floating around balls of light. They were the Star Rulers constantly searching for suitable astral worlds.
The existence of such a strange scene was something that had never happened in the game in Gu Nan's past life. Even this world's World of Gods did not have it; only the Myriad Heavens had this.
When Gu Nan saw the Inner World in the past, everything merely felt strange, but now that he knew it was an artificial creation, it looked more simple and crude.
It's as if it had been forcibly pieced together, existing solely for functionality without any adornments.
"Do you think it's too simple?" Li Ci seemed to understand what Gu Nan was thinking and said with a smile, "I felt the same way when I first came here."
Li Ci also had the experience of "coming here for the first time", which meant he wasn't one of the Inner World's creators. This place should have been created by Unified Dao figures from earlier years.
Before Gu Nan could speak again, Li Ci continued, "After the collapse of the ancient three realms, the Saints discovered that the fragments of those realms were constantly drifting outward, getting further and further away from the center of the Myriad Heavens."
"As these fragments drifted to the edge of the Myriad Heavens, some started to crumble on their own while others vanished completely without a trace. No one could find them anymore."
"If this continues, then sooner or later, all the fragments will disappear completely, and there will only be a few large astral worlds left in the Myriad Heavens, and the name of 'Myriad Heavens' will no longer be accurate…"
Through Li Ci's explanation, Gu Nan gradually gained a new understanding of the Myriad Heavens' history and worldview.
In reality, he already knew most of these things long ago but never connected the dots to look at them from a much higher perspective.
To describe it with a simple metaphor, the entire Myriad Heavens was like a sphere that was constantly rotating, and the planes—or astral worlds—were the particles making up the sphere.
Heaven Level planes were at the very center of the sphere, accounting for a huge proportion of its volume and had completely fixed coordinates.
Realm Level planes accounted for a slightly smaller proportion and were on the outer edges of the central area, but they also had their own stable coordinates and wouldn't be thrown out of the center.
But the World Level planes below them didn't receive such good treatment. Almost all of them were outside the central area. They were affected by the sphere's rotation and were constantly being thrown out to the edge.
It was precisely because of this that time in Heaven and Realm Level planes was completely unified, while other planes always had their own time flow differences.
Using Gu Nan's limited knowledge of physics to speculate, it was roughly because the planes in different orbits had extremely different relative speeds, which led to the difference in time flow.
"In ancient times, there was no such thing as a Star Ruler." Li Ci explained, "In order to prevent the fragments of planes from getting away, the Saints called on the cultivators to leave the main planes and continue to expand outwards. They also passed down the cultivation method of linking a cultivator to a specific plane."
Hearing this, Gu Nan couldn't help laughing. "So that's how Star Rulers and astral worlds came about."
Although they were similarly linking a plane to themselves, the gods next door actually built their Divine Kingdoms from scratch, which was completely different from the Myriad Heavens. Although the two reached the same goal from different paths, they were drastically different during the Divine Kingdom phase.
"The Star Rulers control their astral worlds. As they continuously strengthen themselves, their astral worlds will also continue to grow. When they ascend to Realm Level, this plane fragment will be completely saved."
Li Ci went on, "However, there are too many world fragments. It would be too inefficient if we relied on the Star Rulers to find them all. Therefore, the second generation Unified Dao cultivators decided to summarize all the fragments first, and this summary mechanism is the Inner World."
After saying this, Li Ci led Gu Nan forward. They had already entered the core of the Inner World, the control center in the truest sense.
Then he took back his laws, which were controlling the command center, and motioned for Gu Nan to take over the position while saying with a smile, "I don't need to explain what happens next. Someone else will tell you."
Gu Nan looked at him strangely. When he injected his laws into the control center, he suddenly felt an inexplicable throbbing, as if something was beating inside the center.
"It's alive?" Gu Nan looked at Li Ci, who just nodded slightly, indicating that he should wait a moment.
Sure enough, just a minute later, Gu Nan heard a soft female voice echoing in his ears, "It's nice to meet you, new King."
A woman's projection slowly appeared in front of Gu Nan. This woman had a slender figure, but her body was made entirely of blue light beams, and her face had no appearance.
"We usually call her 'Zero'." Li Ci finally spoke again, "She is the origin of the Inner World and the living creature that coexists with it."
"So she's the housekeeper, right?" Gu Nan wasn't affected by Li Ci at all, immediately seeing through Zero's true nature.
To put it bluntly, these Unified Dao figures were all quite busy themselves and had no time to deal with world fragments all the time, so they found a full-time housekeeper to do the job.
"You're correct, King." Zero's voice sounded again, "I was first created as a manager."
Gu Nan looked at Li Ci. "What does 'King' mean?"historical
Li Ci chuckled. "Here, you can control the entire world and manipulate anything you want. In a sense, you are the King of the World."
Author's Note:
(The end… Just kidding)
"Yes, King." Zero's voice echoed in agreement, "You can do anything you wish, as long as the other party is still inside the world."
"King of the World?" Gu Nan thought for a moment, then pointed at Li Ci. "Zero, help me kick this annoying fellow out first."
Zero suddenly fell silent, as if she had never received such an order before.
Li Ci experienced Gu Nan's trolling tendencies for the first time and couldn't help laughing in spite of himself. "You needn't bother; I was just about to leave. Daoist Friend Gu, let's meet again if fate allows."
After saying this, Li Ci had no intention of dallying and quickly disappeared.
It wasn't until he disappeared that Zero's voice sounded weakly, "King, his power cannot be controlled by the world…"
"I know." Gu Nan waved his hand. If this bullshit King of the World really could control Unified Dao powers, then that would truly be absurd.
In reality, let alone Unified Dao, the Inner World would have very weak control over any astral worlds ruled by even normal Star Rulers.
The Inner World reflects all the planes that exist in reality. Including the current Sixteen Heavens, no plane could escape, including Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom.
But this didn't mean the Inner World had any control over these astral worlds.
As long as it was an astral world already under a Star Ruler's rule, the world itself would be controlled by that Star Ruler first and foremost and indirectly affected by the Inner World second.
Of course, except for bored people like Gu Nan, no Unified Dao powerhouse would try to influence other planes through the Inner World.
If they truly wanted to affect something, they could simply issue an order.
The Inner World must be overseen by a Unified Dao existence because it needed the support of Unified Dao Realm laws to maintain its normal operations.
For the Unified Dao figures, this was a completely useless existence, with almost no meaning to its existence besides giving some pleasure over "controlling the world".
Based on the agreement among Unified Dao cultivators, every person's shift was one thousand years, so any pleasure would be eventually worn down… No wonder Li Ci fled like he was running away and didn't want to stay any longer.
"Is there anything else you need me to do?" Gu Nan studied the Inner World and asked again.
"Nothing else… If something unexpected happens, I will contact you as soon as possible," Zero's voice sounded a little weak, as if she was afraid that Gu Nan would give some strange orders again.
Normally, Gu Nan will return home after his curiosity gradually fades, and then it will be hundreds of years before an unexpected situation occurs.
The so-called unexpected situations were mostly just a sudden collapse of a certain plane, affecting nearby planes, or a certain plane suddenly experiencing a leap and requiring Gu Nan to provide power to help stabilize it…
All these trivial, boring tasks were the daily life of the so-called King of the World.
However, Gu Nan didn't leave quickly, because he realized that being the King of the World was quite interesting.
"King of the World or whatever, it suits me quite well!" Gu Nan nodded and turned his attention to a certain plane—Ghost Sea World.
……
Ghost Sea World.
Vivian carried Adam, who was covered in blood, on her back and hurriedly ran through the dense forest. At the same time, she had to avoid the arrows shot from behind, which was extremely difficult.
After a while, the pursuers were still closing in on them. Vivian knew it was impossible for her to escape, so she simply let Adam down from her back.
"Adam, leave quickly! I'll stop them!" Vivian gritted her teeth and said with extreme regret.
If she hadn't stubbornly insisted on coming along, everyone else wouldn't have bungled the mission to this extent just to protect her.
Now, the whereabouts of Sister Nancy and Jonathan were unknown, and Adam was poisoned by the enemy while helping her escape… 'It's time for me to stand up!'
However, the next second, she was sent flying by a strong force that flung her away from behind.
Adam had managed to stand up at some point and said with a grin, "Even if I'm crippled, I still won't need a little girl like you to protect me! Leave now and tell Nancy…"historical
Vivian's whole body spun in midair until she crashed into the ground. She could no longer catch what Adam wanted to tell Nancy at the end, but tears kept flowing down her face.
She hated her lack of power so much, just like she had when she watched her brother die.
She thought everything was getting back on track, and she told herself that what transpired back then would never happen again, but she didn't expect to experience it again just a few months later.
But Vivian was very strong. Even if her body felt like it was falling apart, she still forced herself to stand up, wiping the tears from her face and quickly moving forward.
The mission must be completed. If it couldn't be completed, there was only death. This was the rule of the Greater God Dimension… She must find Sister Nancy and Jonathan. She didn't want to die, let alone let Adam's death be in vain!
……
But just as Vivian was bravely moving forward, Red Tail was flying into a terrible rage in White Mist.
"What in the world is going on? Why is this kind of mission evaluated as three stars?" Red Tail slammed down a stack of mission reports and asked with an annoyed expression.
According to their plan, Vivian's mission should be successfully completed after a battle of wits and courage.
Only at the last minute would White Mist arrange for the group to be split into two. Vivian's mistake would cause Adam's death, and he would tell Vivian his story before dying.
It would certainly be a story regarding gods, betrayal, and falling.
"My Lord, it was our mistake this time…" The young man in white work clothes was constantly wiping cold sweat from his face. He didn't expect to encounter such a serious problem on the rare occasion Red Tail actually visited in person.
This completely disrupted the training plan of Subject No. 29.
Red Tail's anger still didn't dissipate, and she asked, "Where is Adam?"
Just as she finished, a blue-haired young man hurried in from outside with an angry look on his face. "What the hell were you guys doing? This mission is definitely not three stars. It's at least… Ah, Lord Red Tail!"
Adam was complaining about the intelligence officer's mistakes when he accidentally saw Red Tail's figure and quickly saluted.
Red Tail waved her hand and asked directly, "You've fought against the hostile forces. What's your impression?"
"The information on the hostile floating island is correct, but it's a confrontation mission this time!" Adam said without hesitation, "What the hell was the reincarnation department doing? How could they mix a confrontation mission into the Blasphemer Project?!"
As soon as he said this, everyone suddenly realized.
If it was a confrontation mission, the opponents would be genuine reincarnators from the Myriad Heavens, and the mission difficulty would suddenly increase by more than half a star. No wonder Adam's team had no way to fight back.
After all, the people in the team had to play the role of residents from the World of Gods and could only use abilities obtained from the Greater God Dimension. How could they compare to the enemy reincarnators?
Red Tail didn't have time to investigate what led to the mistake. She said coldly, "How do you plan to resolve this matter?"
Adam exchanged a glance with the young man in work clothes, and the latter responded, "In my opinion, we can only use outside help right now… such as arranging for Nancy to suddenly break through?"
"You might as well hope that meteorites will fall from the sky and kill all the enemies." Adam curled his lips.
Vivian was not a fool. How could she be unable to tell whether Nancy had actually broken through or not?
However, a person next to them suddenly shouted, "Everyone… Everyone, look!"
This person pointed to the screen on the side, which was exactly where the two floating islands were fighting. Meteorites were constantly falling from the sky, and bizarrely enough, they all smashed into the enemy side.
In less than a minute, Heavenly City Floating Island had achieved an overwhelming victory, and Vivian and her team's mission was declared complete.
Everyone in White Mist was stunned, all staring at Adam with strange expressions. Even Adam himself was flabbergasted, wondering if he had any strange ability to turn speech into reality.
"Don't look at me like this. Actually, I… Hey, these meteorites seem to be writing out some words?" Adam seemed to have suddenly discovered something and said quickly.
Everyone turned and saw that the meteorites had indeed smashed out four giant words: King of the World.
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Even now, Vivian was still unable to accept the fact that the mission was suddenly declared complete, and she and her other two team members were sent directly back to the Greater God Dimension.
"It's a hidden time-limited mission," Nancy said with a sullen expression, placing her greatsword on the ground, her back looking a little powerless.
"What's that?" Jonathan's expression looked equally ugly. They already learned from Vivian what happened after the four of them separated.
Since Adam was not summoned back by the Greater God Dimension, that meant he would never return.
Nancy glanced at him and explained, "The mission difficulty is higher than normal, and it's extremely hard to complete the mission directly. However, there's actually a time limit. As long as you can survive until the end of the time limit, the mission will be automatically completed."
Jonathan stared blankly for a long time before he said angrily, "The Greater God Dimension is too much! Since it's a time-limited mission, why not tell us in advance?"
"If we knew the existence of the time limit in advance, we wouldn't try our best to complete the mission." Nancy sighed. "If we were allowed to simply stall for time, I'm afraid the mission difficulty would be on a whole other level."
Jonathan opened his mouth and closed it several times, but in the end, he could only sigh helplessly. "Sure enough, the Greater God Dimension really doesn't give you any chance to take advantage of loopholes."
"It's all my fault, it's all my fault…" Vivian half-squatted on the ground, holding her head in her hands, and said in an extremely weak voice, "If I'd just persevered a little longer and didn't give up so quickly, Adam wouldn't have died!"
Meteorites fell from the sky—Vivian naturally also saw this scene, so she knew that the mission was completed merely a few minutes after Adam's death.
If she could've held on for a little longer, even staying behind to fight alongside Adam, the two of them would have a good chance of surviving.
Although Nancy also looked depressed, she still walked up to Vivian and patted her shoulder. "This is not your fault. Even I didn't expect this to be a time-limited mission…"
Vivian raised her head, a vacant look in her eyes, as if the conviction in her heart had collapsed once again.
The scene fell silent for a while, and Nancy didn't speak further. Adam's death had already made her haggard.
It wasn't until a long time later that Jonathan's voice slowly rang out, "If you don't want what happened today to repeat itself, then reach Tier 3 as soon as possible and enter the Greater God Plaza."
The Greater God Plaza was a place only Tier 3 reincarnators could enter. It was where all the reincarnators could exchange materials and information.
Nancy and the others were able to communicate with other reincarnators precisely because of the existence of the Greater God Plaza.
"Tier 3?" Vivian stared at Jonathan for a while, then nodded heavily.
……
In the exclusive small village provided for Nancy's team to rest, Jonathan and Nancy were talking alone after avoiding Vivian.
"We finally managed to smooth things over." Jonathan shook his head helplessly. "The people in the reincarnation department really are unreliable. They even assigned us a confrontation mission."
Nancy couldn't help curling her lips. "It's a good thing they were able to come up with the idea of a time-limited mission… But say, why did so many meteorites fall that day?"
"Some bigshot probably intervened," Jonathan answered without raising his head. "It's said that the backer behind our organization is the one who just ascended. Who knows what powers those bigshots have."
Nancy's knowledge was obviously superior to Jonathan's, and she slowly shook her head. "Ghost Sea World is a plane-type astral world. Meteorites don't even exist in that world… Someone who can do such a thing is definitely not your average Star Ruler."
Hearing this, Jonathan couldn't help feeling slightly startled, then replied, "Whatever! It'll be clear once we complete the Vivian mission and return to the organization. Speaking of which, I really envy Adam, that fellow…"
Based on the normal script, Adam had to act as Vivian's spiritual mentor, so he actually got to "get off work" early this time.
Nancy also smiled but said nothing.
The current Nancy didn't look as cold as usual. She looked just like a normal person. If Vivian saw this scene, she would probably suspect that the Nancy she knew was fake.
In fact, that was exactly right. The person she knew was a fake Nancy, and even the name Nancy was fake. Everyone she saw in the Greater God Dimension were "actors" from White Mist.
Even the journey Vivian would experience next had been planned.
Which missions she'll clear, which missions she'll fail, and which missions will have her meeting key figures…
"After this mission is over, I won't accept these kinds of missions again." Nancy said, "She's such a good girl. If one day she finds out that everyone is lying to her, then…"
"Don't get soft-hearted and tell her the truth!" Jonathan's voice suddenly became louder, with a serious look on his face. "This will only kill everyone, do you understand?"
White Mist was not a benevolent organization. Jonathan knew this very well.
"I know," Nancy nodded and said expressionlessly.
……
"My Lord." Soon after Red Tail walked out of the observation room, she saw Gu Nan.
What descended was not Gu Nan's main body, but a clone. With Gu Nan's current realm, it wasn't hard to create thousands of clones. Shadows already possessed this attribute in the first place.
"See those meteorites?" Gu Nan said with a light smile, "If you need this kind of assistance when you train blasphemers in the future, you can give me a list."
Red Tail was a little shocked and quickly nodded in agreement.
Even Nancy knew how difficult it was to create a meteorite shower in Ghost Sea World, so how could Red Tail not understand?
Not to mention, using meteorites to write out actual words. This meant Gu Nan could completely control the laws of heaven and earth according to his own wishes.
Even if the Star Ruler of that world wanted to do this kind of thing, it would still take a long time to prepare, let alone an outsider doing it.
This kind of power would definitely be a heaven-defying cheat if it was used to help a reincarnation organization. However, Red Tail didn't dare make Gu Nan work for her. She only dared to request such assistance from Gu Nan with matters involving the Blasphemer Project.
Red Tail knew very well that the Blasphemer Project would be Gu Nan's next focus, and even White Mist and the entire Divine Kingdom would do everything in their power to serve this purpose.
"Also," Gu Nan said again, "there are too few blasphemers right now. A few dozen people are not enough. With so many main planes in the World of Gods, how can there be a lack of candidates?"historical
Red Tail hurriedly nodded, but then responded, "The main problem is that we have to design mission plans for each blasphemer and also to free up manpower to play their teammates. It takes up too much manpower… If White Mist continues to recruit people, the organizational structure will become too bloated."
Regarding this situation, Gu Nan thought for a while and said, "List out the groups in the Greater God Dimension project and hand them over to the Cabinet. White Mist will only be responsible for finding seedlings from now on."
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Management was a science.
As a shut-in who only knew how to play games, Gu Nan didn't actually know much about management. All he knew was to leave the professional matters to professionals.
If a professional refuses to do it, then find a way to get him to do it. If that still doesn't work, threaten him with a knife.
Therefore, when something like the Blasphemer Project—which had the highest priority and took precedence over everything else by Gu Nan's orders—suddenly entered White Mist's daily workload, all kinds of problems were bound to arise.
But discovering the problems right now wasn't too late, and Gu Nan's countermeasures were effective.
Since the Greater God Dimension's planning and preparation required too much manpower and affected White Mist's normal operation, this part of the work could simply be handed over to another organization.
Even if they couldn't do this work, they still knew how to push it onto someone else, right?
Shifting management of the Greater God Dimension to the Cabinet was also a more beneficial approach for the Divine Kingdom.
Because Gu Nan implemented the policy of "complete isolation", it was crucial for the Divine Kingdom itself to still maintain external exchanges, and the Greater God Dimension was a very good entry point.
……
Half a month later.
Gu Nanan was sitting in the Divine Kingdom while Yan Xiaoxiao was reporting on the progress of the Greater God Dimension and Blasphemer Project during this period.
"The Blasphemer Project is progressing quite smoothly. Currently, the number of candidates has exceeded one hundred, and nearly twenty of them have been evaluated as S-Ranked and have relatively high potential to inherit the Godheads."
"As for the Greater God Dimension, the Cabinet has now established the Greater God Department, which is responsible for handling these matters."
"Currently, we have prepared over fifty ownerless planes. All missions that the blasphemers will carry out will be formulated and screened by the Cabinet to avoid errors in mission difficulty evaluation ratings."
The Cabinet was indeed much more well-developed than an organization like White Mist in terms of execution of affairs.
At least for the missions issued by the Greater God Dimension, White Mist could only rely on reincarnation missions, but the Cabinet could prepare people to design missions from scratch. The gap in resources here was extremely huge.
After all, the Cabinet was the essence of the entire Divine Kingdom, and almost all its think tanks were included in it.
"Well done," Gu Nan praised with a nod. "The Cabinet needs a prime minister. Have you considered taking up this position?"
Of course his words were directed at Yan Xiaoxiao.
After becoming the spirit of the Divine Kingdom, Yan Xiaoxiao would never tire and could always maintain endless energy. She didn't need to eat or sleep and could easily understand what was happening in every corner of the Divine Kingdom…
Such an existence was simply the perfect candidate for the administrator role.
"I would be happy to accept." Yan Xiaoxiao said with a chuckle, "If Teacher doesn't mind that the Divine Kingdom will never have a second prime minister, that is."
Gu Nan shrugged, indicating that he didn't mind. Even the current Cabinet was only able to achieve such high efficiency largely thanks to Yan Xiaoxiao.
Moreover, after Yan Xiaoxiao became the spirit of the Divine Kingdom, it was almost impossible for her to betray Gu Nan because she herself coexisted with the Divine Kingdom.
……
"How does it feel to be the King of the World?" In Void Grotto Heaven, Yu Lian asked Gu Nan with a slight smile on her face.
"Not bad," Gu Nan replied casually. "But that Zero… Why does her accent sound like someone from the World of Gods?"
Although she spoke the language of the Myriad Heavens, Zero's words gave Gu Nan a familiar feeling, just like the way system NPCs spoke in his past life's game.
Yu Lian cast him a meaningful glance. "You're right. Zero's original body did come from the World of Gods. A long time ago, My Martial Ancestor and the other two Saints once visited the World of Gods and even participated in the First Divine War."
"The First Divine War?" Gu Nan couldn't help raising an eyebrow.
The First Divine War happened before the current generation's most active group of greater gods truly grew up, and it belonged entirely to the era of the older generation of gods.
If the two sides had contact or even dealings since a long time ago, then the backstory of the World of Gods here may be somewhat different from Gu Nan's memories.
Yu Lian just nodded slightly, waiting for Gu Nan to ask questions. Of course she didn't bring up this matter unintentionally. Rather, she was deliberately testing Gu Nan's origins.
The Myriad Heavens' Unified Dao cultivators now had no doubts about Gu Nan's identity. After all, Austin personally verified Gu Nan's identity as an Evil God.
But what deeds this Evil God accomplished in his past life and who he had contact with were still mysteries shrouded in fog.
Of course Yu Lian and the others tried every means to investigate, but they found nothing.
The ancient World of Gods was in the same era as the ancient Myriad Heavens. That was before the collapse of the three realms. There were almost no historical records handed down from that time, and future generations did not know what happened back then.
Gu Nan thought for a while. "Does Void Grotto Heaven have any records in this regard?"
Now that the Second Round was completed, Gu Nan had ways to escape from even Austin himself.
The Blasphemer Project was already in progress, so Gu Nan had enough time to do some things that interested him, such as exploring the mysteries of the World of Gods.
Zero's existence felt vaguely familiar, but he couldn't pinpoint where he'd seen her before. Perhaps he would only remember if he found her true body.
"Yes." Yu Lian's smile grew a little wider, as if she was waiting for Gu Nan to ask. "But in exchange for reading that information, I hope you can help with a matter."
Because they couldn't threaten each other's lives, Unified Dao powers often engaged in such transactions. Yu Lian was already extremely familiar with this.
Gu Nan also didn't mind paying some remuneration to obtain information in a time-saving and effort-saving way, so he nodded immediately. "What the matter?"
"I have a disciple who wants to study under you for a while," Yu Lian said, staring into Gu Nan's eyes.
Gu Nan couldn't help laughing in spite of himself. "Since you know I'm an Evil God, you should understand that there are some things that cannot be learned by studying."
"Of course." Yu Lian said, "She will learn by merely shadowing you, so you don't need to teach her anything. We at Void Grotto Heaven like to collect all kinds of cultivation routes."
"Ye Wu."
While she was talking, a young girl walked out from behind her with small, quick steps. She hurriedly stopped before Gu Nan and bowed. "Lord Gu Nan, my name is Ye Wu. You can call me Little Wu… Please take care of me!"
Gu Nan glanced at her and said noncommittally, "How long will she study for? I may have to go to the World of Gods soon."
"One… year." Yu Lian glanced at Gu Nan's expression. She originally wanted to say a hundred years, but considering Gu Nan's growth speed, she straight-out compressed that by a hundred times.
"No matter where you go, just take her with you. When the one-year agreement expires, Void Grotto Heaven's records will be open to you."
"Alright." Gu Nan didn't have any objections. With his current abundance of time, he could still afford to wait a year. It was just a matter of heading to the World of Gods to investigate first.
Ye Wu seemed to be very excited when she heard Gu Nan agree. Her little face flushed bright red. "Then I'll have to trouble you, Lord Gu Nan! Please don't pay attention to my existence. Be it cultivation or enlightenment, please go about it the same as usual."
"Same as usual?" Gu Nan glanced at her. "I usually don't cultivate; I just play."historical
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