The flying yellow sand had already settled onto the ground. The Grand Commander's corpse turned back into a human again, which proved that bloodline users' true forms were actually human, and taking on the form within their bloodline was merely a state of transformation.
Newly-grown muscles wiggled over Gu Nan's face, and the outline of a human face could already be seen, but that just made it even more terrifying to look at.
"Looks like you don't plan to avenge him?" Gu Nan turned his head and looked at the figure wearing the "Queen" mask. Only half of his vocal cords had regenerated, so his voice sounded very strange.
The Second Commander didn't seem to care about that at all. She bowed down and said, "I dare not."
A hideous smile spread across Gu Nan's disfigured face.
...
"The Sand King is dead."
Above the endless void, six virtual shadows appeared in a circle, and the scholarly dressed Heavenly Mysterly Dao Lord suddenly opened his eyes and spat out those five words with a calm face.
"I originally believed the two sides would reconcile, but who would've expected such an outcome…" The Dragon and Phoenix Dao Lord beside him also sighed.
Each of the six Dao Lords gathered here had heard from their own information source—some slightly later than the others—but they all received news from White Mist's headquarters.
It was extremely difficult to hide anything from Dao Lord level cultivators if they were interested in a certain place.
Swordmaster Fu Yong looked gloomy. "Why are these two so impulsive… With both of them sustaining heavy injuries, aren't they just giving Lin Tian an opportunity to exploit?"
When the Heavenly Mystery Dao Lord gave Gu Nan White Mist's address, he simply performed a cursory check and found no obvious enmity between the two sides.
At first, they believed that even if the two sides had some minor conflicts, the chances of a major fight breaking out were still quite low. Furthermore, once Gu Nan joined White Mist, then Lin Tian's enemy would become even more powerful.
But who could've imagined that it would end like this?
White Mist's Grand Commander was an opponent that none of the six present here would dare to say they can win with absolute certainty. Even if Gu Nan could kill him, the injuries he sustained from that must be quite heavy as well…
...Could this be Lin Tian's fortune at work again, playing a mysterious role in creating the most advantageous outcome for him?
As the originators of the practice of creating children of destiny, these six had witnessed similar situations many times. A child of destiny would somehow break their way out of a situation that was supposed to lead to certain death.
After all, fate and destiny couldn't be completely controlled by human beings, so they were also quite helpless in the face of that.
The six were silent for a while.
Finally, the Heavenly Mystery Dao Lord spoke up, "Let's divert Lin Tian's attention from Gu Nan for the time being… I'll meet with Gu Nan again. We finally found a good target for the child of destiny to focus on; we can't let him die so easily."
...
At White Mist's headquarters, very few buildings remained intact after the raging sandstorm brought about by the Grand Commander's sandworm form, and there was rubble everywhere.
Members of White Mist began to come out one after another, cleaning up the broken tiles and ruins and beginning the reconstruction of the headquarters.
Gu Nan sat on a high throne in a palace deep within the headquarters, overlooking the people below.
At this time, his body had completely returned to normal, as if he hadn't gone through that great battle. Two people stood beneath him—one of them was naturally the Second Commander, the one with the Queen mask, while the other was Elder Qin.
Never in his dreams did Elder Qin think it would end like this.
He bowed his head and glanced at the back of the Second Commander out of the corner of his eyes, unable to dispel the doubts in his heart.
Gu Nan suddenly slaughtered his way to their front steps, and the Grand Commander just happened to be in secluded cultivation inside the headquarters when that happened. This was supposed to be a good thing, but who could've imagined that the Grand Commander would be killed by the other party?
'The Second Commander was clearly the one who appeared back then and ordered us to stop cooperating with Gu Nan, so how come she's cooperating with him now…'
'And the Second Commander is usually never at headquarters, so how come she just happened to appear right now? Plus, if she was already here, then why didn't she show up earlier to help the Grand Commander…'
Elder Qin hurriedly withdrew his gaze, trying to stop himself from thinking about it, but his thoughts ran wild against his will.
"Elder Qin, tell our subordinates that no one is allowed to divulge anything about today's events to outsiders."
The Second Commander's voice successfully called back Elder Qin's attention, pulling him from his thoughts. He quickly straightened up and replied, "Yes ..."
He looked up but saw that neither the Second Commander nor Gu Nan, who was sitting high on the throne, even spared him a glance, so he turned and left.
When Elder Qin's figure disappeared completely, a mysterious smile appeared on Gu Nan's face.
"I should have thought of it earlier. The timing of San Wei's appearance was too coincidental, and the woman called Liu Wei at the Bloodline Alliance's branch office seemed to be acting strangely as well… So you were the mastermind controlling them."
Gu Nan has always had a good memory.
At the beginning, his meeting with San Wei was just an accident, while the latter offered to be his maid in order to join White Mist.
Although the logic behind her request was slightly far-fetched, Gu Nan didn't ponder it too deeply at that time. But now that he was looking back, he realized something was off.
Even the woman called Liu Wei, who appeared in the Bloodline Alliance's branch office, had a strange attitude. Her words at that time seemed to resemble a deliberate provocation rather than an attempt at peaceful conflict resolution.
Now, when he thought about San Wei and Liu Wei's similar names[1] and their aura, which resembled that of the Second Commander in front of him, certain things became clear.
"As expected, I can't keep it from Lord," the Second Commander said with a smile, then stretched out her hand and took off the mask on her face.
Underneath the mask was a beautiful face, which was somewhat similar to Lin Yunyun's.
Gu Nan raised his eyebrows slightly and asked, "Lin Yunyun is…?"
"My daughter," the Second Commander answered bluntly.
Gu Nan immediately became amused. They had conversed for quite a while, but he finally realized that Lin Yunyun was the other party's ultimate goal. Perhaps the Second Commander had worked out this series of plans from the moment San Wei first discovered Lin Yunyun.
"You people always like to complicate things." Gu Nan waved his hand a few times. "Why didn't you just tell me to use Lin Yunyun and that sandworm's head to exchange for the world mission translation method?"
That's right. The reason Gu Nan and the Second Commander could sit down and have a genial discussion was because the latter promised to hand over what Gu Nan needed.
The Second Commander just smiled without saying anything.
Only those with absolute power could use such a straightforward method. Other people could only use their brains.
But the outcome was the same as Gu Nan's words. As part of the deal, she received Lin Yunyun and a White Mist that no longer had the Grand Commander, while Gu Nan would get the translation method he wanted.
Gu Nan didn't give this more thought. He slowly stood up and said, "It's your turn to honor your promise…"
The Second Commander nodded lightly as she turned and walked towards the door. "Please follow me."
When Gu Nan and the Second Commander came to the door, he suddenly asked, "Third Tail and Sixth Tail are both your doppelgangers? So how many tails are you?"
"It's more appropriate to say that they're my reincarnations. Everyone in our clan is like this, but Third Tail and Sixth Tail are both entirely unaware of their connection to me." The Second Commander replied with a chuckle, "As for me…"
She leaned in slightly with a charming smile. "Lord can call me Red Tail."
Gu Nan turned his head to see a red fox tail swaying up and down behind her, so he nodded expressionlessly. "Then you're Big Tail."
"Where did you get that from?" The Second Commander paused in confusion.
"From the Calabash Brothers[2]."