On Jin Lin World's sacred mountain.
After Gu Nan trapped Jin Lin himself deep in the sacred mountain, the invaders cut through this world like a hot knife through butter.
The group invading the sacred mountain was led by Lan Si, but the main force was still the vampires of the Raymond clan. After all, vampires were too good at bullying the weak and cowering from the strong.
They were easily overwhelmed across the board when facing an opponent with stronger overall specs; but when facing an opponent weaker than them, the vampires could bring out 120% of their strength.
"Who are you people?!"
"To trespass upon the sacred mountain, you all… Ah!"
Clouds of bloody mist exploded all over the enemy's body, and they slowly collapsed to the ground. Lan Si had a cold look on her face as she casually said, "If you want to blame something, blame the fact that you chose to follow the wrong person."
As the vampires surged into the mountain, blood instantly flowed like rivers. One after another, the experts and their families here were killed without mercy, no matter whether they begged for mercy or resisted.
In fact, in Gu Nan's order, besides not needing to pursue the Void Cutters who fled of their own accord, everyone else had to be killed to the last person.
Bai Xi was also on the sacred mountain's battlefield, but he didn't quite understand this order.
He came from a large family in White Bones Realm and used to be a genuine heaven-defying genius. However, Bai Xi lacked the arrogance of a typical young master; instead, he was curious about the outside world.
While curious, Bai Xi was also very aware of his own position and never stepped out of bounds, so he was able to become Gu Nan's apostle.
But Bai Xi's obedience and acknowledgement of Gu Nan didn't mean that he didn't have his own ideas and thoughts. In fact, in Bai Xi's perception, all leaders preferred subordinates with creative opinions.
So with little hesitation, Bai Xi expressed his opinion to Lan Si, "Lord Lan Si, isn't it a little unwise for us to slaughter every human here?"
"Why is it unwise?" Lan Si turned her head and looked at him in confusion.
Bai Xi took a deep breath and explained, "If we continue killing like this, I'm afraid that all His Excellency will get in the end will just be an empty shell."
Of course only an empty shell would be left after everyone was killed. Bai Xi knew that there would be invasions among Star Rulers, but no Star Ruler would do what Gu Nan did.
The gains weren't worth the losses!
The goal behind invading other astral worlds should be to kill the enemy Star Ruler and incorporate that astral world into their own territory, so why would anyone want to slaughter all the inhabitants?
But Lan Si shook her head. "That's what My Lord ordered."
Bai Xi said without backing down, "If there's a mistake in His Excellency's orders, we should at least raise it, or else who will advise His Excellency if anything was overlooked?"
Hearing Bai Xi's words, Lan Si glanced deep into the sacred mountain and replied, "I'm afraid it's too late to say that now."
...
Comrade Bai Xi, who wanted to advise Gu Nan if anything was overlooked, was undoubtedly a good comrade, only it never would've occurred to him that Gu Nan gave Shana's side an even more ruthless order.
The Dark Warrior army swept across the battlefield, sweeping away armies, cities, countrysides… In short, anything that could be leveled was leveled without any semblance of reason.
Not only did they kill the cultivators, but they even killed the civilians in passing. No matter how small a mosquito was, it was still meat.
This was actually because Gu Nan's goal for launching this Divine Kingdom War differed from that of normal Star Rulers and gods.
Star Rulers mainly wanted new territory because their astral worlds could be expanded by absorbing conquered planes. Gods, on the other hand, wanted faith. Their Divine Kingdoms could be continuously expanded by recruiting new believers.
Players like Gu Nan were different from both.
The player's goal was Evil Value and points, and the way to obtain both was actually based on how many enemies the player's divine servants killed.
Any lifeform that could provide power to the enemy Star Ruler was the divine servants' enemy.
This strange level-up path was unique to players. That was why players launched frenzied invasions one after another in the mid- to late-stages of the game, biting any Divine Kingdom they caught.
Divine servants earned points through war. Although not much Evil Value could be earned this way, players would also be able to earn a lot of Evil Value if they ultimately managed to kill the god ruling the Divine Kingdom.
Liang Ruxin silently followed Shana, his expression turning colder and more detached.
Anyone who kept sending loyal soldiers right into the path of the Dark Warrior army while seeing the shocked eyes of his former subordinates would become this way.
"Well done." Shana revealed a charming smile and told Liang Ruixin appreciatively, "With your ability, I believe you will soon be rewarded by My Lord."
"And then continue being an undercover agent?" Liang Ruxin asked, but his tone didn't have any inflection, making it impossible to discern happiness or anger from it.
Shana, however, simply replied, "As long as you can advance to Legend Rank, that job will naturally be done by someone else."
Liang Ruxin didn't respond. His gaze was on the army of Dark Warriors. He murmured, "Any army that doesn't fear death, grows stronger with every battle, and possesses unlimited stamina… For such a perfect army, your command is too crude."
Dark Warriors were half-undead divine servants that possessed many of the advantages unique to the undead, which simplified a war that originally should've been quite complicated.
"Then you can be the commander." With an indifferent expression, Shana handed command directly over to Liang Ruixin.
Liang Ruxin stared at her in surprise. "You're not afraid that I'll take advantage of this opportunity to seize power?"
Shana responded with a vampire noble's most standard smile, "When you reach my realm, you'll understand that this doesn't matter at all. Besides… it won't be long before we retreat."
...
Deep inside the sacred mountain, Jin Lin's expression was already ugly. Countless golden arrows shot in all directions, while the walls around him were becoming weaker and weaker.
For Star Rulers of the Myriad Heavens Universe, the degree to which their astral worlds boosted their powers mainly depended on the number of high-level cultivators inside their astral world, so Jin Lin's power quickly weakened as the sacred mountain was slaughtered clean.
But Gu Nan's condition wasn't very good either. His body could already be described as being riddled with a thousand holes, and even his head had been hit by several arrows.
On one hand, he had to endure unavoidable attacks, while on the other hand, he also had to think of ways to stall Jin Lin. Gu Nan wasn't invincible after all, so this was the most he could manage.
If too much of the enemy Star Ruler's laws accumulated in his body, it would be enough to interfere with the Evil God physique's self-healing ability.
It was precisely because he sensed this that Jin Lin abandoned defense in favor of offense in an attempt to kill Gu Nan before the power from his astral world disappeared.
'The losses to my astral world are already inevitable, but as long as I kill the other party, I can take over Gu Nan's forces!' Jin Lin's mind was very clear. He found a way to stop the losses or even make a bloody profit in the process.
With Jin Lin's judgment of the situation, if the two of them fought with their lives on the line, both had a 50-50% chance of winning.
But he didn't expect Gu Nan to suddenly stop at a certain moment, his figure already standing outside the hall and muttering to himself, "These guys are really slow…"
As if realizing something, Jin Lin swiftly chased him outside, but Gu Nan had already disappeared without a trace.
Jin Lin couldn't possibly match Gu Nan in terms of speed, even if his astral world wasn't destroyed.
More importantly, by the time Jin Lin was free to observe what was happening outside the sacred mountain, he discovered that those damned invaders had long since vanished.
"Gu Nan!" Jin Lin roared frantically in place.
...
Inside his Divine Kingdom, Gu Nan was sitting leisurely in the Evil God Temple, recuperating.
Shana had already brought back the army of Dark Warriors and reported, "My Lord, the Divine Kingdom War has already ended. Shall I arrange for them to continue heading to Crescent Moon World?"
"What's the hurry?" Gu Nan, however, waved his hand and pointed to Jin Lin World in the distance. "Jin Lin himself isn't even dead yet. We'll head over and farm it again after a while."