"Twelve standard units of star iron. Thank you for your purchase…"
In the middle of the night, Gu Nan came out of the rare metals shop alone, complaining in his heart about his purchase of this expensive last ingredient.
The number of lessons he took as a personal coach determined his salary. So he asked Wang Guodong for payment in advance—with the amount equal to three lessons—then ran over to buy star iron.
Wang Guodong was frank and straightforward. He agreed without another word. In reality, after Gu Nan helped him deal with a "scourge" like Xu Feiyan, this amount of money was nothing. He'd even be willing to double Gu Nan's salary.
However, all the money Gu Nan currently possessed was only enough to buy twelve units of this material.
'To purify it into star gold, at least half of the raw material will be lost… Who knows how many times this can still be used.' Gu Nan pondered with some ridicule in his thoughts.
He actually had a selfish reason behind making an excuse to push Xu Feiyan's coaching to a later time: he was in a hurry to buy star iron and search for missions from other worlds.
With his current Evil Value of 48, it was likely for him to break through the 50 mark as long as he completed another mission.
Once he advanced to Prodigious Realm, he would finally have the strength to settle down in Star Realm and focus on his pursuits.
When he returned to the hidden cabin provided by Gu Nian, two people were already waiting there.
They greeted Gu Nan as soon as they saw him, "Mr. Gu, Eldest Miss wants to take Miss Bai back."
Gu Nan glanced into the room. Bai Luoluo was lying in the incubator, submerged in a green nutrient solution.
All the injuries on her body had been basically healed, and there wasn't a single scar on her face.
Gu Nan sent her to Immortal Demon World after she fell unconscious, so her body was naturally left in Star Realm. He wanted to protect the coordinates for Immortal Demon World previously. So he personally supervised her reincarnation process, but that didn't matter now.
"Mm, you can take her back." Thus, Gu Nan nodded. "Tell Gu Nian to inform me immediately if her condition changes."
This matter concerned the "Evil Event," so he definitely wouldn't treat it lightly.
"Yes."
...
...
After sending Bai Luoluo away, Gu Nan took out the star iron he just bought, put it inside a jade vessel, and placed the vessel on top of the fire.
Star iron, a metal containing a unique quality, must be kept in a cold environment and would melt into liquid when heated even for just a little. Similarly, if the temperature is slightly higher, it would quickly evaporate.
The flame Gu Nan used was also unique. It was ignited by using a special fuel called snow concentrate gel, which just so happens to have the ability to control the temperature and keep the star iron in its liquid state.
This step flowed quite smoothly. A short moment passed and he was successful. Gu Nan then threw in some gold powder.
The gold powder was refined gold, which acted as an absorbent. As soon as it entered the liquid, the entire liquid began to shrink rapidly, and the original pitch-black color also began to rapidly turn into gold.
"Done… Contrary to expectations, it wasn't anything difficult." Only then did Gu Nan sigh in relief.
The entire purification process took less than two minutes, but the amount of technical skill involved wasn't simple—at least, it would have been very difficult for even official alchemists to pick out any mistakes in Gu Nan's techniques.
After all, he practiced this many times in the Immortal Demon World.
The final result was similar to what Gu Nan expected. Only 8 units of star gold were extracted from the 20 standard units of star iron. The purification rate was merely 40%.
However, nothing could be done about this. Gu Nan quickly sorted out his mood and devoted himself to painting the array's patterns.
Qin Xuanji had provided him a method for receiving more missions. The method consisted of finding a platform that publicized missions to the outside world, receiving those missions privately, then completing them.
The existence of world missions was pretty strange. They were generated by the world's will, yet they also drifted away from the world's will. A special person must "translate" a mission in order for cultivators to understand its content.
With the rising popularity of the reincarnation business, organizations specialized in translating these missions gradually formed and issued missions to the public, benefiting from the process.
One could indeed obtain benefits by completing a world mission, but most of these benefits would go to the translators themselves—for example, Radiant Tower and the organization that Gu Nan was about to make contact with.
As the inscription on the ground lit up, a golden beam of light gradually emerged, and a line of words was directly projected into his sight.
[Welcome to Astral Gate.
Newcomer, please leave your code name.]
"Evil God."
[Code name confirmed.
You currently have Level E access.
Please check the available missions.]
Astral Gate—that was the name of this organization. As an organization composed almost entirely of reincarnators, their system interface was fully complete and could even be unilaterally operated by Gu Nan.
Gu Nan clicked on the missions list with his will, but it didn't show up. Instead, another sentence appeared.
[We've detected that you are accepting a mission for the first time.
You will be randomly assigned to five available missions.
You will need to wait one day to refresh the missions list.]
[We've detected that you are accepting a mission for the first time.
To accept a mission, you will need to pay five units of star gold as collateral, which will be returned after you complete your first mission.]
Two messages popped up, which made Gu Nan's eyelids twitch.
'There are only five missions at a time to choose from, with a one day cooldown to refresh the missions list, and five units of star gold are even required as collateral… How despicable!'
One unit of star gold was only enough to open the Astral Gate twice, but this organization needed five units upon the first meeting…
'Fortunately, it's just collateral and will be returned later on.'
For the sake of earning Evil Value, Gu Nan didn't worry about it any further. He immediately began to check the missions list.
In Gu Nan's opinion, none of the five missions were considered difficult. They belonged to the small-sized missions category. However, one of them attracted his attention at first glance.
[Mission Objective: Protect the White Dew Goddess]
[Mission Plane: Foreign Country, White Mist Plane]
[Mission Accepted: 3 times]
[Mission Information: Travel to the plane and protect the target character for five days.
This mission is a collaborative team mission.
The maximum number of reincarnators is 4]
Gu Nan frowned. The collaborative team mission had been accepted 3 times. This meant that 3 people had already accepted this mission, but someone didn't agree to start the mission and wanted to wait for another person to join.
After all, the greater the number of people, the greater the chances of success.
However, what attracted Gu Nan's attention the most was the mission's content itself.
'White Dew Goddess… This is a character in the game!' Gu Nan couldn't help recalling his previous life and all the time he spent inside the game.
'There's even a similar dungeon about protecting the White Dew Goddess in my previous life's game, but I don't know if it'll be the same as this mission.'
Unexpectedly coming across a familiar mission, Gu Nan directly chose to accept it without any hesitation.
[Mission successfully accepted.
The number of people has reached the maximum.
Please start the mission as soon as possible.]
After accepting the task, the light from the Astral Gate dimmed. After all, this was only a platform for accepting missions and not a reincarnation array.
Gu Nan activated the reincarnation array beside him and inputted the plane coordinates that he'd just received. The reincarnation ceremony appeared again.
Gu Nan's body was stored in the endless void, while his soul was slowly drawn out, entering the reincarnation gate.
Right when his spirit traveled through the large blue gate, Gu Nan finally found the difference between this type of reincarnation and all the other ones—the situation behind the gate was different from anything he had seen before.
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: In a hidden cabin, Ruby Fish Star
Current Soul Location: Foreign Country, White Mist Plane
Status: ⟪ Evil God ⟫
Advancement Direction: Agility Type
Current Evil God Rank: Tier 2
Equivalent/Current Martial Art: External Kung Fu - Innate Realm Sixth Stage
Current Evil God Temple Quest:
→ Main Mission Objective/s:
-— Eliminate the six demonic factions. - External Source
◈ Status: On Going
-— Evil Event: Bai Luoluo's Blackening. - Evil God Temple Issued
◈ Status: On Going
-— Protect the White Dew Goddess. - External Source
◈ Status: On Going
→ Side Quest Objective:
-— Kill the six demonic factions Innate Realm and above cultivators. - External Source
◈ Status: On Going
Current Evil Points: 910
Overall Evil Points: 2185, Overall Evil Value: 48
Exclusive Skills Acquired:
— Deceitful Steps. [ Passive Ability ] ｢Movement Speed increased by 30%. Attack Speed increased by 50%｣
— Power of Shadows. [ LVL 1 ] ｢Allows the players to activate the skill "Hidden Shadows".｣
▸Hidden Shadows. ｢The power to manipulate shadows to a fine degree.｣
Equipment being worn
→ Armor
-— Dawn Sage's Robe. ｢Basic level defense. If you are not attacked within 3 seconds, you will receive the "Praise of Dawn" effect.｣
→ Weapon
-— 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.｣
→ Accessories - Facial Accessories, Necklace, Earrings
-— Observer Eyepiece. ｢An eyepiece that have a fixed Tier 2 magic 'Insight' inscribe in it.｣
-— Dragon Heart Pendant. ｢Allows players to activate the skill "Dragon Power". This skill cannot be upgraded｣
-— Shadow Earrings. ｢Skill 'Power of Shadows' LVL +1｣
Equipment Skills Acquired:
-— Insight. ｢Ability to obtain high-precision data analysis when looking at people or objects.｣
-— Dragon Power. ｢Greatly enhances the player's strength and physique. Duration: 5 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes｣
-— Praise of Dawn. [Passive Ability ] ｢Increases self-healing ability by 300%｣
Item/s owned:
→ None.