Of course Yu Lian knew what Xue Ren meant by "that side," so she frowned slightly.
"It's true that I've never seen someone with those kinds of powers before… but it's even less similar to that side." Yu Lian thought about it, then shook her head.
As one of the Star Rulers of the Thirteen Heavens, Yu Lian was certainly no stranger to the gods. She'd even personally fought that side's greater gods before.
If the power system of the Myriad Heavens could barely be considered diverse, then the power system of the World of Gods could only be described as having only a single path.
Putting aside the differences in the gods' divine authorities, it could be said that all gods followed the same path—that is, using the power of faith as a basis to control their powers through their Godheads.
Yu Lian didn't really believe that Gu Nan was related to that side, but she didn't entirely disbelieve it either—after all, this came from Xue Ren.
Leaving aside the fact that Xue Ren was also one of the top Star Rulers in the world who was just one step away from joining the Thirteen Heavens and may take that step at any time, just based on the personal friendship between the two, it was enough for Yu Lian to pay attention to Gu Nan.
"If there's an opportunity, we can pull him to our side," she said.
"I will wait and see." Xue Ren was still smiling. Then he changed the subject, "The child Lu Wen found will go to the Void Ruins in the near future. You don't need to make any preparations? I have to leave for a while, so I might not be able to help you."
"I didn't need your help to begin with," Yu Lian replied decisively, her gaze turning a little cold. "Lu Wen is overstepping his bounds."
...
The Thirteen Heavens worked a little faster than Gu Nan thought. Less than two days later, there were already people there to extradite the vampires.
Shana and the others naturally didn't care about the background check, and as for Zhong Die, whose identity was a bit problematic… She was originally from the Myriad Heavens Universe and wasn't affected by the dimensional walls at all, so she didn't need any background check in the first place.
Gu Nan sent the vampires inside his Divine Kingdom and assigned them a separate territory to develop. He had Shana lead two Legend Rank vampires and start raiding the Crescent Moon World dungeon.
However, Gu Nan decisively tossed Zhong Die into White Bones Realm, not giving her any chance to enter his Divine Kingdom.
After all, she was Zhong Qinghe's daughter. Who knew if Zhong Qinghe left any tracking spells on her? Letting her enter his Divine Kingdom was too risky.
If she wanted to enter the Divine Kingdom, then she at least had to wait until Gu Nan felt his Divine Kingdom was powerful enough, or until after he killed Zhong Qinghe.
The Raymond clan, which lived in the Undead Kingdom for years, wasn't quite accustomed to the environment within Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom, but they were still quite satisfied.
There weren't too many powerful forces here, and most of the resources were in an undeveloped state, which was very suitable for their survival.
Besides the somewhat different culture and social customs, as well as the fact that Legend Rank experts would occasionally be pulled away to do hard labor, there was really nothing else to be dissatisfied about.
After settling the vampires inside the Divine Kingdom, Gu Nan supervised the progress of the Crescent Moon World dungeon raid while his main body stayed in Extreme Sword Heaven.
He soon understood what Qu Hongye meant by "attracting danger."
"Senior Gu Nan, someone is knocking on our doors again because of Junior Sister Qu…" Gao Xiaowen ran to Gu Nan's side and reported with a troubled expression.
In just half a month's time, this was already the fourth time he ran over to ask for help. If possible, Gao Xiaowen definitely didn't want to do this.
He was well aware of how horrifying the one before him was—or rather, how brutal he was.
Qu Hongye really was a trouble magnet. Her default expression was always mocking. She could always pull aggro no matter where she went. Every few days, people would knock on their door demanding an explanation or apology.
"Oh, you can't blow them off this time?" Gu Nan asked unhurriedly while leisurely sunbathing, an open book covering his face.
The last three times he was approached, Gu Nan didn't even have any intention of showing himself or resolving the problem and simply let the Sword Sect deal with them.
It was nothing more than apologizing when an apology was warranted or paying for damages—it wasn't the first time the Sword Sect had cleaned up Qu Hongye's mess.
"Yes, Junior Sister Qu killed someone this time…" Gao Xiaowen answered helplessly, "and it was the wife of a Star Ruler. That Star Ruler is now looking for Junior Sister Qu."
The Star Ruler in question came from a small plane. Even his astral world was established only recently, so he wasn't very strong. But at the very least, he was still a Star Ruler, so Extreme Sword Heaven couldn't be unreasonable.
The bigger the plane, the more it valued its face. Large planes couldn't just openly bully others.
"Senior, it would be better to place Junior Sister Qu in confinement." Gao Xiaowen couldn't help suggesting, "If you don't manage her, then she's just too much of a troublemaker… The several Seniors who looked after Junior Sister Qu previously all ended up doing the same thing."
This clearly wasn't the first time Qu Hongye had been left with someone else. Whenever Xue Ren went out to attend to a matter, he needed someone to babysit Qu Hongye.
But Gu Nan revealed an interested smile. "Let's go take a look."
...
Gao Xiaowen quickly led Gu Nan to the main hall, where Qu Hongye, several senior members of the Sword Sect, and a burly man with a scruffy beard were all gathered.
"This is Lord Qiao Deyu," Gao Xiaowen pointed to the large man and introduced him to Gu Nan.
Qiao Deyu sized Gu Nan up with cold eyes, uninterested in greeting him. His expression remained icy from beginning to end—he came here to demand __, not to make friends.
"Your Excellency Gu Nan, you're just in time. Help us persuade Mr. Qiao together," nearby, an old man in Daoist robes said with a bitter smile. He was none other than Gao Xiaowen's master, an elderly Daoist named Zhang Hui.
Beside him was a female Daoist who was also a cultivator from the same generation as him. She was called Wu Yun and was also one of Qu Hongye's Martial Aunts.
Wu Yun was currently busy wiping Qu Hongye's ass for her. Plus, she also didn't recognize Gu Nan, so she naturally didn't have time to pay any attention to him.
But no matter how she persuaded and how much she promised to compensate, Qiao Deyu always had a frosty expression and said coldly, "I don't need any compensation, nor is it possible for you guys to compensate for my wife's life."
As he said that, he turned to look at Qu Hongye. "I just want to ask one thing—my wife had no enmity against your Extreme Sword Heaven, so why did you kill her?"
Everyone turned their heads to Qu Hongye, who just shrugged with a Hmph. "Her chest was bigger than mine. I hate big-chested women the most, so I killed her~"
Everyone was stunned by that answer. Qiao Deyu's eyes turned bloodshot, and the laws around him surged crazily, all directed at Qu Hongye.
"You're courting death!"
The next second, a hand waved in front of Qu Hongye, instantly extinguishing all attacking laws—Gu Nan had appeared in front of Qu Hongye.
At the very least, Qiao Deyu was still a Star Ruler with an astral world, so he shouldn't have been this weak, but the one who actually came to Extreme Sword Heaven was just a clone.
Qiao Deyu wasn't stupid. If he still came with his true body despite knowing full well that Extreme Sword Heaven was powerful and that they'd just become enemies, then he was simply looking for death.
Looking at Gu Nan's expressionless face, Qiao Deyu was so furious that he laughed. "Good! Very good! What a tyrannical and lawless Extreme Sword Heaven!"
After throwing down these words, he disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke.
Qiao Deyu's disappearance left Gao Xiaowen and the others with faces full of worry. It was clearly impossible for the other party to give up on his revenge, which meant that Junior Sister Qu would have to face the threat of a Star Ruler whenever she went out in the future.
"You're quite good." Gu Nan, however, smiled and patted Qu Hongye's head. This action was identical to Xue Ren's. "Xue Ren said you have the most hope of advancing to Star Ruler Realm. Indeed, that's true."
"Ah? Why do you say so…?" Next to them, Gao Xiaowen was dumbfounded. He couldn't understand why the Junior Sister Qu who made trouble for no reason would actually show the most promise of advancing to Star Ruler Realm.
In a certain sense, this was already considered complete disregard for human life.
Gu Nan looked at Qu Hongye with a light smile, as if looking at a highly promising beginner teammate in his past life's game.
Qu Hongye wasn't actually stupid, and it was impossible for that to be the first time Qiao Deyu asked her why she killed his wife. Her words were spoken deliberately for Gu Nan to hear.
As for her goal… She probably wanted to find some trouble for Gu Nan?
In any case, she could casually kill innocent people for her own goal—this was one of the marks of a Star Ruler.
In the World of Gods, this was called "divinity[1]."
"A clear-cut goal and sound logic, very good." Gu Nan said to Qu Hongye with a smile, "But you'll have to clean up the mess you made."
Qu Hongye panicked slightly and subconsciously asked, "How to clean it up?"
"Wipe out that Qiao Deyu's astral world."
[1] Divinity: Has more to do with personality here than actually being divine