The Evil God Temple was filled with people as far as the eye could see.
Ever since Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom was established, so many apostles had never gathered here at the same time.
Guan Hongchen, Lei Qi, and Lei Ba were in charge of grinding dungeons; Lan Si and Yan Xiaoxiao were in charge of managing the Divine Kingdom; Red Tail was in charge of White Mist.
"It's rare for you all to be gathered together," Gu Nan said as such to the crowd. "Some of you probably don't even know each other, right?"
Hearing this, the more honest Guan Hongchen and others nodded. She even wanted to proactively strike up a conversation with Lan Si and get closer to her, but Gu Nan's next words scared her away.
"It's good that you don't know each other. You guys have no need to know each other." Gu Nan said blandly, "Line up and enter."
Under Gu Nan's order, the group of apostles walked inside the arena en masse with faces full of confusion.
Among them, Red Tail was the most perplexed. She spent the least time within the Divine Kingdom and didn't fully understand the fantastic features of the Divine Kingdom's structures.
It wasn't until she walked inside that she realized the inside of the arena was actually astonishingly large despite looking like the size of a model from the outside.
Before she could get ready, an invisible force had already thrown her into the arena.
At the same time, the arena refreshed, creating a huge beast out of thin air. Even with Red Tail's knowledge, she actually couldn't recognize this beast.
"Roar!"
The giant beast, however, didn't care what she thought and immediately lunged at her, startling Red Tail.
In fact, this giant beast wasn't very strong. It was at the peak of Prodigious Realm at most, but because its understanding of laws was too shallow, it couldn't even be considered a Dao Lord.
At the very least, Red Tail had Dao Lord level power, but unfortunately, she lived a life of luxury for many years and hadn't fought anyone in a long time, so for a while, she was actually suppressed by this beast.
It was only after ten or so minutes that Red Tail gradually steadied her mind and instantly killed the giant beast, while she herself also suffered considerable injuries.
"Is it trying to improve our fighting abilities through continuous combat?" Red Tail quickly surmised, but the truth seemed to be a little different from what she thought.
There was no one at all to help her recover from her wounds, nor was there any post-battle analysis. She was immediately thrown back into the arena right after killing the first beast.
Everything seemed to return to square one. Even the monster didn't change; it was still the same one—Red Tail clearly remembered that this giant beast had a scar on its hind leg.
"This…"
...
Gu Nan stood outside the Time Arena, gazing at the apostles trapped in rows of "time capsules" with a smile on his face.
The monster prepared for every apostle would teach them the skill they lacked the most at the moment. They would only be released if they met the Time Arena's requirements.
Only in this kind of repeatedly reset battles could they realize their weak points and overcome them.
If this process was repeated enough times, they would approach the next realm step by step, slowly accumulating experience until the day they naturally advance to the next realm.
Since Gu Nan specially summoned all the apostles here, of course he had to properly demonstrate the power of the new structure.
Without making Gu Nan wait for long, the time capsules shattered one after another as the apostles stepped out of them one by one. Almost all of them had pale, exhausted faces.
"How does it feel?" Gu Nan asked them.
"Very tiring, but also very rewarding," Red Tail was the first to answer, and her expression perked up. "After I finish digesting the gains from today and have the chance to enter this two more times, I'm confident I can break through to Void Cutter Realm."
She was originally a Prodigious cultivator who accumulated ample experience over many years and was only a step away from Void Cutter Realm. It's just that she was in a management position for most of these years and had too little experience fighting battles to the death.
"Is this tempering ourselves through our souls? It's indeed very effective," Yan Xiaoxiao also agreed, but then she smiled wryly. "But I might have to take a long rest after this."
She had to manage the Divine Kingdom, so she already had quite the heavy burden on her shoulders. Gu Nan's move this time practically wore her out.
There was no way to rest inside the Time Arena. Every round was a fight to the death where they must struggle desperately to survive.
This would continue all the way until their mind reached its limit and they were basically only relying on their instinct to fight—this was when they could grow the fastest.
But if they tried this a few times in reality, their bodies would've broken down a long time ago. Conversely, some other simulated battle spaces weren't capable of letting their bodies also fully experience that kind of despair. Only the Time Arena could do both.
Because the apostles actually fought in the Time Arena with their real bodies—it wasn't a simulation!
Every time they died, they actually died for real. It's just that their time would subsequently be reset, and they would be resurrected. It wasn't like what they thought at all—that only their souls entered the simulated battles.
Guan Hongchen and the others also spoke up. Their eyes now contained longing for the future. They thought they were going to spend their whole lives "farming dungeons," but who knew there would be something like this?
If they could achieve Void Cutter Realm, then even if they had to invest several decades here, it would still be a sweet deal!
Gu Nan was satisfied. "In the future, the Time Arena will open once a month. Only one person can enter each time; the highest bidder wins it. You all can talk it over amongst yourselves."
The Time Arena cost points to open, so of course he couldn't use it excessively.
...
Construction of the Time Arena caused the work enthusiasm of all of Gu Nan's apostles to suddenly skyrocket.
Not only did the accumulation of points speed up a notch, even Lan Si and Yan Xiaoxiao also abruptly accelerated the development of the Divine Kingdom.
Regarding some of the occasional dissidents, the Yan Xiaoxiao who originally advocated a gentle appeasement policy also became firm-handed.
The Divine Kingdom's contribution point system immediately established a competitive relationship between all the apostles under Gu Nan who originally had different divisions of labor.
However, the next matter Gu Nan had to deal with was unrelated to them all. Instead, it was in Crescent Moon World.
Red Tail sent over news from Crescent Moon World: Ah Xiu, whose family and sect Gu Nan destroyed a while back, was finally showing signs of a breakthrough right now.
In today's Crescent Moon World, twenty years had already passed since the World's Strongest Martial Arts Tournament.
As a fugitive wanted by the Martial Arts Alliance, Ah Xiu went into hiding for twenty years and visited almost every corner of the world during that time.
With the passage of time, this sole surviving member of the formerly prosperous Zhongli Sword Sect gradually faded from people's memories.
Only Red Tail, who'd been continuously observing her through reincarnators, knew that time didn't break this young girl and instead made her more resilient and tenacious.
But as Ah Xiu grew stronger, even Red Tail's people found it harder and harder to find her trail. Finally, five years ago, Ah Xiu disappeared completely from their sight.
It was only a few days ago that news related to her suddenly came out. It wasn't about her personally, but about her disciple.
"A young man named Yun Tianyang showed up at the border and eliminated a group of bandits who once attacked Tianshui Prefecture's Yun family a few years back. He used precisely the sword style of the former Zhongli Sword Sect."
"Can you confirm he's Ah Xiu's disciple?"
"There is no guarantee." Red Tail shook her head. "This Yun Tianyang may have been taught by Ah Xiu, or he may have just accidentally acquired the former Zhongli Sword Sect's inheritance."
"Then we'll find a way to confirm it." Gu Nan said with a smile, "Spread news that we plan to eliminate Tianshui Prefecture's Yun family. If he really is Ah Xiu's disciple, she will definitely make a move."