A resourceful player will always pursue the playstyle that maximizes profit—unless he thinks there's a risk associated with this playstyle.
Unlike all the Star Rulers who invaded other astral worlds, Gu Nan's aim was never to fight over territory, but to kill enough of that world's inhabitants in order to cut off the supply of power to the enemy Star Ruler.
From this perspective, the Myriad Heavens Universe was more convenient than the World of Gods.
Because in the Myriad Heavens Universe, the Star Rulers' source of power was primarily high-level cultivators and secondarily civilians, not believers.
Although it was harder to kill powerful cultivators, as long as Gu Nan could provide a large and powerful enough army, it was definitely easier to simply kill people rather than killing believers.
After all, powerful cultivators were instantly recognizable, while believers were not. Besides the few particularly fanatical ones, the only choice was to wipe out all inhabitants to prevent a particularly big fish from slipping through the net.
It wasn't like the Myriad Heavens Universe at all, where cultivator targets were obvious enough that they couldn't run away in time. As for civilians, the invading army killed as many as they were able to, but it wasn't a big deal if they couldn't kill all civilians. Anyways, they wouldn't lose much.
This was precisely why Gu Nan wouldn't kill the target plane in a single blow. He much rather preferred "sustainable development," farming it over and over.
Perhaps one day, a Star Ruler like Jin Lin would be driven mad by him and simply abandon this plane, searching for a new astral world in a fit of rage. Then Gu Nan would have to give up along with him.
Gu Nan sat in the Divine Kingdom. Almost half a month had passed since his first Divine Kingdom War.
His injuries from the battle with Jin Lin had already healed—when not in combat, the Evil God physique's healing factor was on another level.
Gu Nan obtained substantial gains from this Divine Kingdom War.
Originally, Gu Nan already squandered all his points to create 2,000 Dark Warriors, but now that number directly swelled to nearly 50,000 points.
Merely one Divine Kingdom War that was slightly rushed for time and executed by relatively inexperienced apostles brought in this amount of revenue. War really was something that could return a huge profit with only a small investment.
There was also the fact that Gu Nan couldn't stall Jin Lin for too long, and there were also no Tier 4 divine servants among the invading troops.
The absence of Tier 4 divine servants meant it was almost impossible for the army to kill Tier 4 opponents—enemies killed by apostles didn't give any points.
His Evil Value, on the other hand, probably grew by about 200, a somewhat pitifully small number compared to Gu Nan's current level.
This was also by intentional design. It wasn't like no one in the game had ever tried the same tactic as Gu Nan—leaving the enemy Star Ruler alive—with the intention of repeatedly farming points.
But for one thing, immigrating to a new astral world to escape the invasion was far less troublesome than cultivating new believers from scratch in the same world. For another, it was the above reason—how could players get Evil Value if they didn't kill gods?
This was unlike the current Gu Nan, whose sources of Evil Value and points were separated, which gave him the incentive to farm Jin Lin World repeatedly.
Although the gains were substantial, the losses suffered by the Dark Warrior army were also considerable. Though being unfearing of death was a good quality in battle, one would start hating this quality once they started counting the casualties suffered by the troops.
Of the 2,000 Dark Warriors, after a slaughter that lasted less than a few hours, there were now less than 300 left. The casualty ratio reached an alarming point.
The level of the Dark Warriors wasn't high in the first place, so casualties could easily occur even when facing low-level soldiers from Jin Lin World.
However, divine servants were creatures created from laws and could be mass-produced as long as points were invested, so Gu Nan didn't care how many died.
It was fine as long as his Tier 4 subordinates didn't die—they were still needed to keep an eye on the hostile Void Cutters, since Gu Nan currently lacked a stable source of Tier 4 troops.
Gu Nan, who got 50,000 points, put 30,000 of them into the Divine Kingdom's structures without another word.
This time, he still chose the Divine Servant Institute, as well as the other divine servant structure created after the upgrade, called the "Ghoul Camp."
The second type of soldier Gu Nan planned to select was none other than Ghouls.
If Dark Warriors were still half-human and half-undead, retaining part of the characteristics of flesh and blood creatures, then Ghouls were pure undead creatures.
In the early stages of the Divine Kingdom's development, undead soldiers were indeed the most suitable starting troops.
The reason was simple—the vast majority of troops that could "grow their numbers with each war" and perhaps even grow stronger with every battle belonged to the undead category.
The well-known necromancers all became famous because they built up huge undead empires with their own power.
Dark Warriors had the "Death Sacrifice" ability, able to strengthen themselves by killing enemies, while Ghouls had the "Corpse Eater" ability that allowed them to regenerate and even level up by devouring corpses.
Of the two, one killed enemies and one ate up their corpses. The latter could help kill more enemies after eating corpses and might even grow powerful enough to take over the battle, so they were the perfect match.
But Ghouls were on the weaker side when first starting out, which was why Gu Nan didn't choose them immediately.
As for the remaining 20,000 points, Gu Nan put them into the production of Dark Warriors and Ghouls with a 3:1 ratio.
Although he said he planned to farm Jin Lin World a second time, Gu Nan still had a group of Legend Rank vampires farm the Crescent Moon dungeon to earn points for him.
This wasn't because Gu Nan intended to renege on his promise. Rather, it was because Comrade Jin Lin's "capital construction" was too ineffective.
Time in a small plane flowed even faster than inside the Divine Kingdom, but Jin Lin World already had almost half a year to recuperate, yet the states of Qi and Zhao still looked the same. They didn't appear rebuilt at all.
In other words, if Gu Nan wanted to return and slaughter all the powerful cultivators in the armies again, he could only set his sights on the two other states.
But it wasn't wartime, so those armies were scattered all over the continent, drastically reducing the efficiency of just one massacre.
At the end of the day, Jin Lin World was still Jin Lin's territory, and Gu Nan couldn't stall the other party indefinitely.
Now that he thought about it, the fact that Zuo Zuo was able to suppress Red inside her own astral world for so many years was quite a terrifying feat. If not for Ying Ge's existence creating a weak point in his mind and forcing him to choose self-destruction, the result might still be uncertain.
After all, Zuo Zuo was a powerful Tier 10 Star Ruler, second only to the Thirteen Heavens. He wouldn't be killed so easily.
But in reality, this wasn't much of a setback. If Gu Nan could send one Liang Ruxin to incite a war between two states, he could naturally also send a second Liang Ruxin.
It would only take a little time.
But while Gu Nan was busy farming his points, conversations in the Myriad Heavens Universe exploded again because of his actions.
In fact, in the Myriad Heavens Universe, Star Ruler Realm battles were still relatively rare.
Although there were quite a few Star Rulers and astral worlds in the Myriad Heavens Universe, Star Rulers usually fought each other in the Inner World, so fights that happened in the real world were particularly conspicuous.
Even though Jin Lin World was only a small plane, it still had a certain degree of popularity as an astral world controlled by a Star Ruler.
People noticed as soon as the war broke out, and after inquiring about the identity of the invading Star Ruler, that information attracted even more people's attention.
Gu Nan! It was actually Gu Nan!
Gu Nan, suspected of having already advanced to Star Ruler Realm and perhaps even having his own astral world! The same Gu Nan who killed Lou Wanying and likely stole the ancient Void Grotto Heaven's inheritance!