"I don't care what you think about the mission. Have you clearly memorized the rebirth rules?"
Two minutes before departure, Ye Chong was still warning the two newcomers seriously—Zhang Dongsheng seemed to have appointed him as the person who'd be in charge and responsible for the results of this mission.
Qin Xuanji nodded seriously and didn't speak; Gu Nan also nodded "seriously" and yawned while he was at it.
Ye Chong's expression was a little dark, and he shouted at Gu Nan, "Gu Nan! Memorize this for me—it doesn't matter if we completely fail the mission, but no one is allowed to violate even a single line of the rebirth rules, do you understand?!"
"I understand..." Gu Nan still seemed dispirited.
Ye Chong shook his head.
Actually, Gu Nan wasn't intentionally looking for trouble, but he really couldn't get serious.
The so-called rebirth rules were exactly what they had been asked to understand and memorize in the past seven days, which talked about all kinds of taboos during reincarnation.
For example, like how reincarnators must use their real name, and how reincarnators should never leave behind karma on the rebirth plane.
This wasn't the first time that Gu Nan had heard of the word "karma."
The reason he came to Star Realm was because Gu Nian wanted to settle her "karma;" the reason he was snatched away and sent to Radiant Tower was because someone didn't want Gu Nian to settle her "karma;" and the reason those people didn't dare to kill him was also because they feared coming into contact with this "karma."
[If "karma" isn't settled, your inner demon will haunt you when advancing to the next realm, and the cultivator will die on the spot…]
"Like hell I'd believe that..." Gu Nan was disdainful in his heart.
If karma acted on the cultivator through their inner heart demons, then how come the theory of karma had never been mentioned in their own plane, but only showed up during rebirth?
Clearly, "karma" was related to "rebirth."
The time of rebirth soon arrived. As a blue light flashed on the round table in the center of the pub, the souls of the four people were drawn out and thrown into a small, broken plane at the other side of the endless void.
...
Early in the morning, crisp and melodious bird songs echoed in the mountains. There was a dilapidated orphanage at the foot of the mountain. Four young men and women gradually woke up.
These four were precisely Gu Nan and the others.
Their identities were orphans adopted by the director of the orphanage 16 years ago, and they had grown up together.
Ms. Luo Bing, the director of the orphanage, was the objective in this mission. The Ice Soul Crystal in her blood was the target their enemies had been pursuing.
Ye Chong stood up as soon as he opened his eyes. He looked around for a while and saw his companions wake up at the same time, so he naturally started giving instructions.
"The first wave of attacks will arrive in a quarter of an hour. Build some countermeasures and traps here, or find a handy weapon to kill the vanguard and buy some time."
Lin Ruo added, "We all reincarnated with our entire souls, so we'll recover our original strengths very quickly, but it'll still take around half a day. During this period, we must pay attention to our own safety."
Reincarnating with the entire soul meant their strengths would be restored extremely quickly. However, once they died during reincarnation, their souls would also suffer heavy damage, and they may even die.
Therefore, when dealing with this kind of mission, once failure seemed inevitable, members of Radiant Tower would choose to give up the mission directly.
Lin Ruo's words were obviously meant for the two newcomers. Although she had a conflict with Gu Nan, now was not the time to deal with personal conflicts.
Qin Xuanji's expression looked grave, and she meticulously began to search for weapons. Before her strength fully restored itself, weapons could still greatly influence the outcome of a fight.
On the other hand, Gu Nan looked relaxed, but he also began looking around, which made Ye Chong and Lin Ruo relieved.
They were afraid that Gu Nan, this boy, would still refuse to take this seriously and drag everyone down.
But when he came back, they couldn't smile anymore. At least Qin Xuanji had somehow found a wood chopper, but Gu Nan actually found a... bottle?
"What are you going to do with a bottle?! The enemy is coming soon. We must rely on our current bodies to fight against more than a dozen Acquired Realm opponents!" Lin Ruo roared at Gu Nan.
She felt like she was about to go crazy. 'I hate this kind of fellow who's still so sloppy even when facing serious business! Dying serves you right! But you just have to drag down your companions…'
"Who says we absolutely have to fight? You NPCs don't know a damn thing about dungeons!" Gu Nan curled his lips disdainfully and said to Qin Xuanji in passing, "Lend me the knife."
"Oh..."
Gu Nan walked to the inner room with the wood chopping knife in one hand and an empty bottle in the other.
It just so happened that Ms. Luo Bing, the mission's target, was walking out of the inner room. Ye Chong quickly rushed up to her and spoke with a face full of anxiety, "Foster Mother, get ready quickly. The subordinates of Azure City's Young Master are coming to kill us!"
As an orphan adopted by Luo Bing, the four had always called her "Foster Mother."
When Luo Bing heard the words "Azure City's Young Master," her entirety seemed shocked and her face paled. "San'er [ 1 ], how can you know that... Forget it. They're coming for me, so you guys should hurry and run as far away as possible!"
Of course Ye Chong couldn't say they figured this out during the previous mission attempts. He turned to look at Lin Ruo.
According to the previous teams' experience, at least two people needed to cooperate in order to persuade Ms. Luo Bing.
As long as they could persuade her to escape first with two people and leave the other two to take up the rear, things would get much easier after that.
Lin Ruo already knew the process, so she also walked up and gently hugged Luo Bing's arm. She said softly, "Foster Mother, you also know that we've grown up with you since childhood. If anything happens to you, we… sniff sniff"
Lin Ruo's appearance was lovely and touching. Luo Bing was instantly moved by this, and her expression also relaxed.
Ye Chong couldn't help but secretly praise her.
No matter how cold and proud Lin Ruo usually was, she was really competent when carrying out missions. Right now, she acted like a caring daughter without any hint of embarrassment.
However, just when the two were feeling slightly relieved, a black light slashed across them, and the two simultaneously felt something warm splash across their faces.
Blood!
Luo Bing's blood!
That Gu Nan had actually slashed Luo Bing's neck with the knife!
Ye Chong only felt a stream of blood rush to his head. Their good plan was instantly destroyed!
"Do you know what you've done?! You....." He rushed over with bulging eyes and grabbed Gu Nan by the collar, shouting angrily.
Gu Nann pushed him away. "Go away, don't hinder me."
"I... You..." Ye Chong was too angry to speak.
Only Qin Xuanji was still staring at Gu Nan. After learning from Old Zhang about how Gu Nan passed the assessment mission, she became very interested in this person.
She wanted to know how he'd complete this Azure City mission.
Gu Nan squatted down and placed the bottle by Luo Bing's neck wound to catch the blood flowing out.
At this time, Ms. Luo Bing wasn't completely dead yet. She stared at Gu Nan with wide eyes. She couldn't understand why her family, who had relied upon each other for survival for 16 years, would attack her.
"W-why…"
Gu Nan glanced at her. Because he still needed to collect blood, it wasn't convenient to twist off her neck for the time being. Thus, he answered earnestly, "This is all to protect your Ice Soul bloodline. Since you're going to die anyway, isn't it better for us to take your blood so that at the very least, we can prevent Azure City's Young Master from succeeding, right?"
Due to excessive blood loss, Ms. Luo Bing, whose brain had begun to suffer from oxygen deprivation, thought 'His words are really reasonable,' and her consciousness gradually blurred…
Devotee's Game System Inspired Note
» This section of the chapter is a Fan based created system to mock-up or simulate the 'Status Information' of our MC - Gu Nan. This implies that you are free to skip reading this and continue your journey onto the next chapter.
» All catalog data below is a summary of various information achieved by Gu Nan that corresponds till the end of the related chapter and is compiled into a singular 'Status Screen.' Additionally, the invented system below would continue to evolve as we progress and learn more about the novel itself.
MC's Status Information
Name: Gu Nan
Current Location: Radiant Tower's branch office on Ruby Fish Star's sixth asteroid belt
Current Soul Location: Orphanage in Azure City
Status: ⟪ Evil God ⟫
Advancement Direction: Agility Type
Current Evil God Rank: Tier 2
Equivalent Martial Art: External Kung Fu Master - Innate Realm Third Stage
Current Evil God Temple Quest:
→ Main Mission Objective/s:
-— Protect an item and prevent the enemy from snatching it for three days. - External Source
◈ Status: On Going
Current Evil Points: 336
Overall Evil Points: 816, Overall Evil Value: 26
Exclusive Skills Acquired:
— Deceitful Steps. ｢Movement Speed increased by 30%. Attack Speed increased by 50%｣
Item/s owned:
→ Four Element Crossbow. ｢A Tier 2 crossbow weapon that can generate four types of elemental arrows—earth, water, wind, and fire—based on the user's needs and does not need to load arrows.｣