There was always a clear goal behind everything Gu Nan did.
He needed to make Guan Hongchen into his apostle, so everything he did served this purpose.
If necessary, he didn't mind killing all of Guan Hongchen's family and only leaving her eldest grandson alive in order to force her to complete missions for him.
Now, however, he found a more efficient method.
One of the Three Elders of Peach Blossoms Star was still lying amidst the rubble. The entire scene was silent; only the sound of Gu Nan's unhurried footsteps could be heard.
Even his footsteps sounded no different from ordinary people's, which showed that after Gu Nan leveled up to Tier 5, he had indeed withdrawn all of his power inside himself.
Now, unless he attacked of his own accord, no one would be able to tell that he was actually a grand Star Ruler.
But he did attack, and he even swatted away one of Peach Blossoms Star's Three Elders directly with that one blow, which made Guan Hongchen feel her scalp go numb. She knew that today's matter probably wouldn't end well.
As for An Wende and his team, they couldn't even speak right now. They didn't know who Gu Nan was, but they knew at least one thing—the old man who appeared just now was at Void Cutter Realm!
For their team composed entirely of Prodigious cultivators, Void Cutter powerhouses already seemed like unbeatable bigshots. But now, this bigshot was slapped into the ground like one would swat a fly!
Zhang Dongsheng was equally dumbfounded, but he always had this expression, so he didn't look as conspicuous here.
Guan Hongchen took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. "Your Excellency, may I ask what commands you have…?"
"Work for me, or else I'll kill your entire family," Gu Nan's "command" was concise and comprehensive.
"This…" For a while, Guan Hongchen didn't know how to respond. She had never seen such an unreasonable person before, and she also never thought this would happen to herself.
Her eyes swept over Red Tail next to Gu Nan and finally understood why Red Tail had said that just now.
"Wait a minute!" But a voice interrupted Guan Hongchen's response.
Of course this wasn't An Wende, who was scared to death. Rather, the old man had managed to crawl out of the rubble. Bloodstains could still be seen on the corners of his mouth.
After all, he used to be a top Void Cutter cultivator, and Gu Nan's power of laws didn't improve much after breaking through to Tier 5, so he couldn't kill the enemy in a single blow.
So the old man glared at Gu Nan. "Young man, I—"
Bang!
Another palm strike landed, but this time Gu Nan personally attacked. His speed was so fast that his palm seemed to skip over space, falling directly on the old man's head.
The old man's head exploded in an instant, and a cloud of bloody mist burst out in midair, dimly floating down to the ground.
So a far more terrifying deathly stillness enveloped everyone.
When this scene fell in Guan Hongchen's eyes, she didn't ponder for long before sighing slightly. "I'm willing to follow My Lord."
...
After witnessing Gu Nan kill one of Peach Blossoms Star's Three Elders in an instant, Guan Hongchen had completely lost any thought of resistance and just silently followed Gu Nan.
However, she wasn't worried about the other party having ulterior motives. With this one's power level, the only thing he valued about her was probably her mission expertise.
As Guan Hongchen expected, the other party took her to an unknown small world and finally revealed his purpose.
"I need you to help me clear a dungeon. The walkthrough is already available, and an assistant will also be assigned to you." Gu Nan led Guan Hongchen, who had become an apostle, and stopped in front of the Splendid World dungeon.
Lan Si had been beaten within an inch of her life by Splendid World, and even now, she had yet to clear the first phase. She currently stood beside Gu Nan with a dark expression.
Guan Hongchen sensed the terrifying power emanating from Lan Si's body, which was as deep as the sea and surged like the tides. She couldn't help replying cautiously, "I understand. I will properly assist this Lord."
Gu Nan was too lazy to care about which of the two was the assistant. It didn't matter as long as they could clear the dungeon.
"Whenever the dungeon is cleared, you can regularly select some resources from here and send them to Star Realm."
Of course Gu Nan understood the principle of motivating people through benefits, but he wouldn't allow Guan Hongchen to leave his Divine Kingdom for the time being. Not even apostles were completely loyal.
Even gods who had the faith of their followers still experienced cases of betrayal by their own apostles, let alone players whose apostles didn't have any faith.
"Yes." Guan Hongchen appeared very clever and readily accepted all of Gu Nan's orders.
Although she didn't quite understand the meaning of "dungeon," she could understand Gu Nan's intention—if she wanted to see her family again, then she had to do her best to complete the mission.
"Oh, right," Gu Nan suddenly spoke again. If Red Tail was here, she would definitely feel a lingering fear toward those two words. "Do you have other friends who are also good at this field?"
"This…" Guan Hongchen paused a little. She seemed slightly hesitant to sell out her acquaintances so thoroughly like this.
"This dungeon can accommodate up to four people."
"I know some people!"
...
Red Tail was already looking for a suitable plane in preparation to rebuild White Mist. After settling Guan Hongchen's matter, Gu Nan could rest for a short while.
The construction of one's Divine Kingdom wasn't a matter that could be done in one or two days. Gu Nan already knew this from experience back when he was still playing the game.
The Evil God game focused on a fast pace in the early phase in order to attract players. However, in the Divine Kingdom management and construction phase after Tier 5, the pace suddenly slowed down, and the theme became "killing time" instead.
This was also in line with the consistent style of game companies—for players who were already engrossed in the game, they always tried their best to keep the existing player base.
Gu Nan's present goal was to upgrade the Evil God Temple from Level 0 to Level 1. That would be the equivalent of owning a Level 1 Divine Kingdom, and it would officially mark his completion of the First Round.
But if he wanted the Divine Kingdom to provide fighting strength for himself, then he'd have to wait until it reached at least Level 3 or Level 4.
A Level 1 Evil God Temple needed to have six Level 0 basic buildings.
At present, all kinds of basic resources were continuously transported to the Evil God Temple, and over half of the construction requirements for the "Resource Market" had been met.
Due to the underdeveloped science and technology inside the Divine Kingdom, the resources of "wood" and "ore" were far in excess of the required amounts. Fortunately, the Evil God Temple could collect resources and convert them into data, or else they wouldn't even be able to store all of this.
Contrary to expectations, Guan Hongchen, who was motivated to "clear dungeons," recommended many candidates to Gu Nan.
Unlike administrators like Red Tail, Guan Hongchen was someone who only completed missions. Of course her circle would be dominated by other mission experts, so she knew a lot more of those people than Red Tail did.
Gu Nan personally undertook this task. After several twists and turns, he slaughtered two entire families and eliminated several weak candidates from the list. Finally, he chose a father and son pair and added them to the ranks of his apostles.
After putting together the full four-person team to clear Splendid World, he also received news from Red Tail. She had picked a small plane with an obvious difference in time flow as a base for White Mist and requested Gu Nan's help.
Just as the construction of the Divine Kingdom was slowly advancing and everything started on to get on the right track, a figure arrived at the very edge of the Myriad Heavens Universe.
This was Qian Han, and the place he arrived at was a golden ocean.