"Welcome, Ying Ge's Daddy. As you are only a normal member, the missions list is temporarily inaccessible."
The soft female voice echoed throughout the space belonging to Astral Gate, but Ying Ge's expression turned darker and darker. If not for the fact that she hadn't recovered her strength yet, she would've jumped up and shattered Gu Nan's kneecap.
"Bastard! Change your name right now!"
"You see, I don't even have the authority to accept a mission. Help me level up first," Gu Nan said earnestly.
His goal in coming to Astral Gate—or rather, Zi Luo Heaven—was to accept some missions to earn origin crystals and exchange them for active world origins.
This was something normal Void Cutter cultivators often did. Gu Nan wanted to see what kind of response the Evil God Temple would give if he followed this pattern.
Gu Nan had some levels at Astral Gate a long time ago, but that was back when he was Tier 3.
Astral Gate had two completely separate ranking systems for people below and at or above Void Cutter Realm. The stars he had when he was Tier 3 must be converted to the new system proportionally—but Gu Nan's measly stars could only be converted into the rank of a normal member.
Fortunately, he now had a noble 11-star member to give him a referral.
Ying Ge asked with a gloomy expression, "Will you really change your name after I refer you?"
"Of course. I always keep my word."
"You can't change it to one of my relatives again!"
"Not a problem."
Moments later, Classmate Gu Nan, a newly-promoted 5-star member, chose to change his code name again.
"An 11-star member really is high up, to directly pull me up to 5 stars…" Gu Nan muttered. "Change code name to Ying Ge's Next-Door Neighbor Uncle Wang[1]."
...
Ying Ge's resentful glare remained fixed on Gu Nan's back when they left Astral Gate, as if to burn a few holes into him.
Gu Nan didn't care about this at all. Just because he usually liked to do things in the most straightforward way didn't mean that he didn't know how to do things in a roundabout way.
It's just that he didn't feel the need to circle around things if he could simply kill the NPC instead.
Besides, players were all pros at teasing people with these kinds of strange game IDs.
After successfully becoming a 5-star member, Gu Nan's authority was indeed much higher, and he easily found a mission that suited him and paid well.
Hunt down the traitor Xin Berg.
No matter how powerful an organization like Astral Gate was, there would still be traitors. After all, when tangible benefits were right in front of people's faces, there would always be people unable to restrain their desires.
Xin Berg was a Prodigious Realm cultivator whose strength was approaching the Dao Lord level. He killed his teammates during a mission, then absconded with the stolen mission item.
Now Astral Gate had pinpointed his location. He was currently inside a small world.
...
Ghost Sea World.
When Gu Nan stepped into this world with Ying Ge, he immediately felt that this name was very suitable for this world.
Ghost Sea World was a very strange plane. It was similar to Zi Luo Heaven in that the land was flat, and there was no such thing as a planet.
But the ground here was a boundless sea of ghosts, with countless vengeful souls churning about. Once someone fell into it, it would be hard for even Void Cutter existences to survive.
Both cultivators and mortals could only live on floating islands high above the ghost sea.
"Greetings, Your Excellency. I am the 6-star member Symphony." People from Astral Gate were naturally already waiting here when Gu Nan and Ying Ge arrived through the teleportation array. They immediately greeted him.
Pinpointing Xin Berg's location was clearly no easy matter. There were over ten people standing in front of Gu Nan at the moment.
The leader was a man in a black tailcoat. He was the one who spoke just now.
When members of Astral Gate greeted each other, the lower-ranking members would usually take the initiative to introduce themselves and report their star rank. The man codenamed "Symphony" was already a 6-star member.
Just looking at the number of stars, he was even higher-ranked than Gu Nan. But of course, the status of a Prodigious cultivator couldn't compare to that of a Void Cutter powerhouse.
"Hello, everyone." Gu Nan nodded slightly at everyone. "I'm 'Ying Ge's Next-Door Neighbor Uncle Wang'."
Gu Nan announced this long name without pause. Beside him, Ying Ge's expression suddenly darkened, and Symphony also couldn't help staring blankly.
"L-Lord Wang…"
"Mm, this is Ying Ge," Gu Nan very politely remembered to introduce Ying Ge to everyone.
"..."
Moments later, the pursuit team led by Symphony all had awkward smiles on their faces as they stood beside Gu Nan and Ying Ge, while Gu Nan was earnestly reading the information on their target.
Of course Astral Gate also had information on Xin Berg, but it certainly wouldn't be as detailed as what they had here.
Xin Berg, a relatively Western name, meant that the other person didn't come from a large plane.
In the Myriad Heavens Universe, only small planes had different civilizations, and even black and white races were hard to find here.
The information from the pursuit team also confirmed this point. In fact, Ghost Sea World was Xin Berg's hometown, so after he had nowhere else to go, he finally decided to return here.
He wanted to use Ghost Sea World's special terrain to stall for time.
"Stall for time?" Gu Nan finally raised an eyebrow and asked when he read this.
"Yes." Symphony explained gravely, "Xin Berg betrayed the organization for a bottle of celestial water. He rapidly grew in strength after defecting. The last time we fought, I was no longer a match for him…"
Symphony was a veritable Dao Lord. The fact that he couldn't defeat Xin Berg, even with coordinated support from the other team members, meant that Xin Berg was only one step away from Void Cutter Realm and may even break through at any time.
No wonder Astral Gate directly assigned the mission to a Void Cutter member as soon as it learned of the situation, so as to not send several Dao Lords and give the other party free experience points.
However, no matter how fast Xin Berg's strength rose, it was still nothing to Gu Nan. He asked directly, "Where is the target now?"
"At present, we can only confirm that the target is on one of the three floating islands." While speaking, Symphony gave the names of the three floating islands. "We didn't dare to startle the target before this, but now that My Lord has arrived, we can seal off the floating islands."
Gu Nan gave a small nod. When faced with a target they couldn't capture, of course they couldn't rashly tighten the net.
"Have the people in charge of these three floating islands come see me. Completely seal off the floating islands and forbid anyone from leaving," Gu Nan instructed quickly.
Symphony and the others nodded in unison, but at that moment, a crisp voice rang out from next to him.
"No! You absolutely can't seal off the floating islands!"
Gu Nan looked up and saw a pretty young girl quickly walking over with a frosty expression.
"Symphony, have you forgotten what I told you?!" As soon as the girl appeared, she shouted at Symphony.
Her righteous expression made Symphony feel somewhat ashamed, and he even glanced at Gu Nan anxiously.
"Sealing off a floating island for a long time can easily cause ghost Qi to flow in reverse. Such a phenomenon will devastate all life on the floating island. Who among you can shoulder this responsibility?"
The girl spoke without hesitation and exposed the facts that Symphony hid.
"Is that right?" Gu Nan's voice asked.
His calm gaze made Symphony even more uneasy. After all, it was true that this was his transgression.
In order to complete the mission, he concealed the truth that would cause a great disaster… If this caused the one in front of him to believe that Symphony was deliberately trying to pin responsibility for the disaster onto Gu Nan, then he wouldn't ever be able to wash himself clean of that crime, not even if he jumped into the Yellow River.
The young girl, on the other hand, watched this scene with satisfaction. She believed that Symphony, this nasty person, would surely get his just deserts.
"Yes, but—" Symphony quickly replied, as if trying to find an excuse for himself, but was interrupted by Gu Nan.
"In that case, won't the target die if we simply seal off all three floating islands?" Gu Nan looked puzzled. "What a waste of time this is."
[1] Uncle Wang: A generic surname for a neighbor, like Neighbor A