Red Tail gave Gu Nan two coordinates, one of which was the location of Flying Clouds.
Therefore, Gu Nan naturally visited Flying Clouds first. No matter whether Void Cutter enemies existed or not, it would simplify matters if he slaughtered them all first. Otherwise, he'd have to wait for them to come to his door. How troublesome would that be?
Inside Red Tail's room, Bai Xuesheng and the others had already withdrawn. They were busy trying to confirm Flying Clouds' current situation.
With Gu Nan's present realm, he could translate the two mist mirrors almost instantly.
He handed the two pure white mirrors to Red Tail. "I didn't kill all the mission personnel in Flying Clouds. You can find someone to absorb those members into White Mist."
Red Tail stared blankly, then reacted with repeated nods while her heart shivered slightly. She felt that this was Gu Nan expressing his dissatisfaction—dissatisfaction with their excessively slow mission completion speed right now.
Even though she came to White Bones Realm only a short while ago and could only recruit mission personnel from large planes, it was obviously impossible for her to say these reasons out loud.
In reality, she was overthinking this. From Gu Nan's perspective, doing a good job or doing a bad job didn't exist for NPCs—everything was "as it should be."
As for why he specifically urged her to pick up the pace for missions, it was simply because he just happened to glance at the personal dungeon interface and saw several of them close to 100% completion. If they put in some more effort, he might just acquire a second personal dungeon.
Even in the Divine Kingdom, personal dungeons had cooldowns. Guan Hongchen and the others had already gotten very skilled at farming "Splendid World." If a new dungeon was acquired, the growth rate of points would definitely double.
"Wait," Gu Nan stopped Red Tail just as she prepared to leave, "are there any Void Cutters in desperate straits around here, or any who intend to sell themselves in order to take revenge against a powerful enemy?"
If there were suitable candidates, Gu Nan didn't mind selecting some local apostles.
Red Tail pondered this, but after a long time, she shook her head awkwardly. "Even in such a harsh place like White Bones Realm, there are still very few Void Cutters in desperate straits…"
She was telling the truth. With Void Cutter cultivators' ability to enter and leave large planes at will, it was indeed hard for them to be backed into a corner so much.
Even if they greatly offended someone, as long as they weren't dead, they'd still be able to slip away to other planes. How many planes were in the Myriad Heavens Universe? Perhaps not even the Star Rulers of the Thirteen Heavens knew the answer to that. Where would pursuers start looking for them?
Only Void Cutters in situations like Qian Han's—where he was targeted by a Realm Level Star Ruler and also ran into someone like Gu Nan who could seal off space—would have no choice but to surrender.
Otherwise, how many cultivators who could cultivate to Void Cutter Realm would be willing to subordinate themselves to others?
For example, the Void Cutters in Starry Ocean Pavilion and Zuo Zuo's "Five Steles" were all raised from an early age. The shadow of a Star Ruler hung over their entire cultivation journey, and their own base or family was in the Star Ruler's astral world in order to ensure their loyalty.
Gu Nan could only sigh helplessly, but at the same time, he held higher hopes for getting some otherworldly clan apostles. He was just waiting for those two bigshots to finish fighting.
However, Red Tail immediately said, "My Lord, are you looking for some Void Cutter level cultivators to stay here permanently?"
"Mm." Gu Nan nodded.
If White Mist didn't have the protection of Void Cutter experts, then some other trouble would inevitably befall it in the future. He couldn't run here to deal with it every time, nor could he guarantee he could arrive before it was too late every time.
So Red Tail suggested, "My Lord, do you still remember that Crescent Moon World has a kind of Transcendent Realm cultivators? They don't have the ability to break through the void, but three or four of them acting together can also fight those Void Cutters…"
Hearing this, Gu Nan suddenly raised his eyebrows and said, "They're perfect for this!"
...
Three days later, Gu Nan was already in Crescent Moon World, while Red Tail also came with him after finishing up matters in White Bones Realm.
"My Lord, the current Transcendent Realm cultivators in Crescent Moon World have already been summoned." Red Tail handed Gu Nan a list. "Not counting those we potentially overlooked, there are fifteen people under our control."
"That many?" Gu Nan wondered. He remembered that when he came here, there were only eight large sects in this world, with one Transcendent Realm cultivator per sect, but there were actually so many now?
But Red Tail just explained with a smile, "Decades have already passed in Crescent Moon World. We gave out better cultivation techniques, and there was also no infighting amongst themselves, so more and more people were able to reach Transcendent Realm."
Gu Nan nodded and took the list without saying anything else.
Over such a long time, they had more than enough time to finish studying the essence of the so-called "Transcendent Realm." If Void Cutters were beings that reached a higher level as a lifeform, then Transcendent cultivators were more like people who took a crooked path that deviated from the main one.
Without a correct direction, they stepped onto the wrong path. As a result, they weren't good enough to take a high post but were too proud to accept a low one.
It was far easier to reach Transcendent Realm than it was to reach Void Cutter Realm. Although their combat effectiveness wasn't that much worse, their nature as lifeforms was still far from that of Void Cutters.
They had yet to surpass the limits of humanity, so their lifespans were still rather short, and they were still unable to control space.
However, such existences were indeed best suited for protecting White Mist. Gu Nan didn't actually need them to travel through space; he simply needed them to contribute their fighting strength.
It was true that Gu Nan didn't think of this group of special military strength at first. After all, he was a player, not an omniscient and omnipotent god.
As for Crescent Moon World, he only took a cursory glance at it back then and didn't take it seriously at all. On the other hand, Red Tail personally stayed there for nearly 30 years and was more familiar with it.
"The World's Strongest Martial Arts Tournament?" After briefly scanning the list, Gu Nan saw some other words after the names.
It was a brief description and competition schedule for the "World's Strongest Martial Arts Tournament." Even the seeded players had been decided upon.
Red Tail smiled while explaining, "Martial arts prevails in Crescent Moon World. People often argue about who the strongest martial artist in the world is and even rank them. It can be seen that they attach great importance to this false reputation."
"Luring them into a martial arts competition by using the title of "world's strongest" is the best way to determine these people's actual fighting strength, and we might even see secluded experts we previously overlooked."
There was no doubt about Gu Nan's wisdom. He immediately understood this plan's benefits after Red Tail said the simple phrase "world's strongest."
By using the tournament to rank these martial artists, not only could they figure out the participants' trump cards, it would also make it more convenient for future management of Crescent Moon World—in the future, the treatment of the world's strongest would of course be better than the world's second strongest.
If Gu Nan handled this matter himself, he might still have thought of such an idea; it's just that as he leveled up, he paid less and less attention to these trivial matters.
This was probably one of the shortcomings of players: when their level exceeded the other party's by too much, most people were too lazy to follow the walkthrough and simply preferred to crush enemies directly using force.
"Then let's do that." Gu Nan casually handed the list back to Red Tail. "Just say that I will also be there to watch the top 16 matches, and I'll select some people to take to the Upper World with me."
"Take them to the Upper World?" Red Tail stared blankly, then reacted and smiled. "In that case, I'm afraid even those old monsters hiding in the mountains will have to run out now."
Gu Nan just waved his hand and asked Red Tail to take some more time to prepare thoroughly. They must be sure to catch all the Transcendent cultivators in Crescent Moon World in one fell swoop.
Anyhow, the flow of time here was 60 to 1, so he had plenty of time.