After impaling the two like a skewer, Gu Nan didn't spare them another glance and casually flung Yu Shuyun aside, instead focusing on sending Dong Xun away.
He had to send Dong Xun to a small, obscure plane and was a little rushed for time. Qi Bu's attack had already attracted the attention of the powerful figures in Heavenly Province World, including Daoist Lingyang and the others.
So Gu Nan must send Dong Xun away as soon as possible, or else he would face more and more setbacks.
A few moments later, when Daoist Lingyang and the other members of the Heaven-God Alliance rushed to the scene, Gu Nan's figure was long gone, leaving only a headless corpse, as well as Yu Shuyun, who had a bloody hole in her chest.
"This one is one of our people," a member of the Heaven-God Alliance said heavily after lowering his head to examine Yu Shuyun, whose eyes were blood-red in anger.
"A reserve member?" Daoist Lingyang glanced down slightly. Yu Shuyun didn't hide her face, but he had no memory of this person.
"Yeah."
Daoist Lingyang was silent for a while. Finally, he shook his head. "Someone snatched the box—let's forget about it. Recall everyone."
...
Academic Heaven, inside a strangely-shaped tower, an old man opened his eyes and sighed slightly.
"Mingxuan."
The old man called out to the door, and immediately a youth walked in and bowed. "Master."
"Make a trip to Heavenly Province World and bring your Junior Sister back." Some helplessness appeared on the old man's face, as if this wasn't the first time he'd ordered such a thing.
Sure enough, Chu Mingxuan looked unhappy and complained under his breath, "Has Junior Sister caused trouble again? Like I said, that kid Qi Bu may seem fastidious, but he's incompetent and completely unreliable."
The old man gave another light sigh and gently waved his hand, causing some lines to suddenly appear on the canvas in front of him.
The lines tangled and curled, forming a rough human shape, and then colors began to appear on it. A short while later, an exact copy of Yu Shuyun was sketched out.
But what made Chu Mingxuan's jaw drop was that his familiar junior sister was staring wide-eyed, with a grisly hole in her chest. Her entire expression was lifeless.
"Who did this?!" Chu Mingxuan only felt a wave of white-hot anger rush straight to his head and blurted out words that promised violence.
Their youngest martial sister was their master's favorite and was also treasured by himself and several other senior brothers. Usually, they couldn't even say anything harsh to her. Yet someone actually hurt her this much?
The old man said with a heavy face, "We can look for the murderer later. Go bring her back first. If it takes too long, even if I'm preserving her true spirit right now, I still may not be able to save her."
"Yes!" Chu Mingxuan said solemnly, and his figure quickly disappeared.
...
Three days later, the saint clone reentered White Bones Realm, while Gu Nan's original body remained inside his Divine Kingdom.
He didn't intervene again in Rolensia's matter after that. In fact, Star Rulers like him and Xue Ren, who were under too much attention from the Thirteen Heavens, were long since unsuited to being involved in such secret matters.
Especially Xue Ren—as soon as he made a move, all the powerhouses in the Thirteen Heavens would immediately know. None of his moves would be a secret.
On the contrary, Daoist Lingyang's identity hadn't been exposed yet and was more suited to taking charge of this kind of matter.
In all likelihood, the reason Xue Ren deliberately had Gu Nan join this event was to force him to throw in his lot with the Heaven-God Alliance.
Having participated in "smuggling" Rolensia meant he stood on the opposite side of the Thirteen Heavens, and it would be impossible to defect back to that side again.
After all, given the nature of the Heaven-God Alliance, the group had to be extremely cautious about the addition of any new members. Gu Nan wasn't stuck on this step when he joined because of his clear origins, but it was also impossible for the organization to immediately give him access to their core members and matters.
Only a powerful Star Ruler like Xue Ren, who didn't fear having his identity exposed, could make contact with Gu Nan.
"Rolensia's advancement can't be done overnight. There's no telling how long it'll take," Gu Nan withdrew his gaze from a certain small plane and muttered to himself.
Of course he was staring at Rolensia's location. This powerful god who was ruthless to the point of slicing herself into pieces had now reassembled her divine body and was currently trying to make contact with her own Divine Kingdom from within the Myriad Heavens Universe.
Speaking of which, in all his years of gaming history, Gu Nan had never really seen a god ascend to a greater god by themselves.
There were quest chains that allowed gods to level up into greater gods, but they all required the player's help, and none of the gods in the several quest chains were Rolensia.
Rolensia's advancement to a greater god was entirely up to her now, and Gu Nan also didn't have time to stare at that plane all day.
In the next few days, he was finally about to take a step towards Tier 7 and wage a Divine Kingdom War.
...
"My Lord, preparations in Jin Lin World are finished. Liang Ruxin launched an armed rebellion and overthrew the state of Zhao's royal family in one fell swoop. He ascended the throne as emperor two days ago local time," inside the Divine Kingdom, a white-haired young man with an enchanting face reported respectfully as he stood before Gu Nan.
This man was named Bai Xi and came from White Bones Realm. He first joined the White Mist organization based in White Bones Realm and was later recommended over by Red Tail due to his outstanding performance, ultimately becoming one of Gu Nan's apostles.
It was worth mentioning that due to the Time Arena's powerful effect, White Mist's strength swelled even further after Red Tail's advancement to Void Cutter Realm.
More and more strong experts joined White Mist, and a portion of them entered the ranks of Gu Nan's apostles.
Since then, the replenishment of apostles entered a virtuous cycle, and Gu Nan's Apostle Hall already had over two dozen names recorded in it.
And the special characteristic of apostles meant Gu Nan didn't have to worry about their loyalty.
As long as someone had second thoughts, the Apostle Hall would give a clear notification, and their loyalty stat would immediately drop dramatically, so Gu Nan had plenty of time to kill traitors.
"Good." Gu Nan sat high on the throne in the Evil God Temple and said calmly, "Notify Shana: have the vampires get ready and raise their spirits for battle."
"On Jin Lin World's side, have Liang Ruxin send troops to attack the state of Qi. Doesn't matter if he can win or not—just keep fighting till the last troop standing, no matter what."
Bai Xi bowed in response, but Gu Nan spoke once again, "Notify all the apostles that the invasion of Jin Lin World will take place in half a month. All apostles at or above Void Cutter Realm must participate."
...
Bai Xi had just left the Evil God Temple, keeping Gu Nan's several orders in mind, when he saw Lan Si quickly walking over.
"Lord Lan Si." Bai Xi hurriedly saluted. He was a very careful person. Lan Si was far above him in terms of both strength and status, so Bai Xi naturally didn't dare to be rude.
Lan Si nodded as a greeting to Bai Xi.
Ever since that year, Lan Si's character became increasingly taciturn, somewhat approaching Gu Nan's mannerisms. This was actually a form of imitation. People always subconsciously imitate those they idolize.
Bai Xi also didn't mind, since he knew Lan Si had always been like this, and just added, "My Lord ordered an invasion of Jin Lin World in half a month. Everyone at or above Void Cutter Realm must participate."
"Got it," Lan Si replied casually, but her feet were already walking forward again.
But as she stepped into the Evil God Temple, she saw a new structure forming. It was different from anything she'd seen before and was clearly a huge black portal.