It really wasn't too much of a hassle for Daoist Lingyang's Clear Profundity Realm to send a group of people to the World of Gods, especially if Gu Nan already prepared the space-time crystals in advance.
But when players complete missions, they always try to take as much advantage as possible without any regard to losing face.
Sylvia left unhappily, and after Daoist Lingyang asked about the people Gu Nan wanted to send and agreed on a meeting place, his figure also quickly disappeared.
Gu Nan looked at his departing back and pondered.
The purpose behind the existence of an organization like the Heaven-God Alliance, which straddled two worlds, was multifaceted by its very nature.
For people like Xue Ren and Rolensia, what they wanted was an unhindered path to Unified Dao in the other world, but for those like Daoist Lingyang and Sylvia, it was still a little too early to consider that.
The world was full of Star Rulers and gods who indulged in carnal pleasures—if not, how could there be so many illegitimate children of gods?
Daoist Lingyang didn't look like someone addicted to pleasure, but he frequently visited the World of Gods, as if he was managing something on this side.
Then Gu Nan shook his head again. Daoist Lingyang's plans were none of his business.
The more important matter right now was still the event that Sylvia came to him about.
The events in the Evil God game were set up in a very interesting way, and the vast majority of them had rogue-like characteristics. Every new cycle in the game, the same events would happen at slightly different times, and even the details would be a little different.
Only the main content of the event would be the same, which made events more unpredictable and gave the players more entertainment—of course, now Gu Nan would prefer not to have such entertainment.
Gu Nan knew what Sylvia needed his help with even before she explained.
The Shadow Cult.
In the World of Gods, there was a cult that existed throughout many planes and even had believers in all the main planes. This was the Shadow Cult.
The Shadow Cult was a relatively special cult because it didn't belong to a particular god, but was a sect formed by an alliance of three gods.
The Goddess of Shadows Sylvia, the God of Thieves Sirius, and the Sage of Deadwood Aiden—these three were the founders of Shadow Cult, which was mainly made up of their followers.
The three joined forces to protect this sect and also obtained faith from the sect, which was one of the better methods for weak gods to harvest faith.
After all, it was unlikely that any single one of the three would be able to develop the cult to this extent on their own.
But at some point in time, Shadow Cult will face the attack of another sect, or rather, face the challenge of a powerful god.
...
When Sylvia dropped by Gu Nan's residence once again, she also brought information on a certain god.
"Shadow Sword Saint Chamberlain, he's our opponent this time," Sylvia pointed to the information on the paper and said with a slightly grave expression.
Gu Nan wasn't surprised. No matter how Shadow Cult's crisis changed, the final boss was always the same Chamberlain.
The conflict between the two sides was also very simple: it was a fight over faith.
The "Shadow" in Shadow Cult was the common point of the three gods' laws, but unfortunately, the origin law of the Shadow Sword Saint was also "Shadow."
In such a situation, a portion of Chamberlain's followers was naturally divided up by Shadow Cult, so of course the Sword Saint was unwilling.
This wasn't because Sylvia and her two allies wanted to take advantage of him. Rather, Chamberlain didn't even exist back when they founded Shadow Cult.
The Shadow Sword Saint was a god who rose abruptly only in the last 10,000 years, and in just a short few thousand years, his strength had already progressed to Tier 8. He could be described as a natural-born genius.
It was only after he gained a grasp of his own power that he began to take on Shadow Cult, bullying this joint sect of one Tier 6 and two Tier 7 gods.
Of course, he didn't want to completely break up Shadow Cult.
This was an alliance of three old, well-known gods. Although none of them were too strong, they had many friends, so they didn't fear a full-scale war against anyone.
Chamberlain's goal this time was merely to force Shadow Cult to change its name, so that it wouldn't take away the believers who should've gone to him.
He proposed a fair fight between himself and the three gods behind Shadow Cult, and the winner would win the right to use "Shadow" in their name.
"Chamberlain, huh… He knows which lines shouldn't be crossed," Gu Nan commented. If Mr. Sword Saint dared to brute force this matter, then there were plenty of people willing to stand up for Sylvia to suck up to the Greater God of Light.
On the contrary, if he kept the situation purely to a dispute of faith, then Sylvia and co's friends wouldn't have a good reason to intervene.
Of course they could find outside help if it concerned their sect's continued existence, but if they needed external help even for something like a fight over faith, then the loss of believers would be very serious.
"But if the sect were to change its name, the loss of faith would be just as serious," Sylvia sounded a bit distressed. This was their current predicament.
Of course changing the name of a sect that had been operating for tens of thousands of years would cause a loss of believers, and getting help from an outsider would actually result in a similar outcome.
"Then how can I help you?" Gu Nan thought for a moment and asked.
"Fight in my place. Anyhow, we both use the law of shadows, and Chamberlain has never seen me before, so there's no reason he'd recognize me."
"I may not fight with just shadows. What if he recognizes that?"
"Then I'll tell him you're a new member of Shadow Cult!" Sylvia had obviously thought of a way out long ago, "Even if you genuinely want to join, I'm sure the other two won't refuse."
Gu Nan couldn't help smiling. Who said Sylvia was simpleminded? She wasn't slow at all when it involved her own benefits.
To join Shadow Cult, either in name or in substance—this was also the solution in the game.
As long as the player's law was related to shadows and the player was sufficiently acquainted with one of the three founding gods, it was possible to trigger the "Shadow Cult" event.
The player can intervene by temporarily joining Shadow Cult as a god, and it's up to the player to choose whether to stay or quit after the event ends.
"I got it." Gu Nan nodded. "When and where is the sword fight?"
The phrase "sword fight" made the corner of Sylvia's mouth twitch slightly, but she eventually told Gu Nan the information, then quickly excused herself and went back to communicate with the other two gods.
After, adding a new god to the sect wasn't a trivial matter.
Of course, Gu Nan wouldn't be very interested in faith. The reason he wanted to participate in this matter was actually because of Chamberlain himself.
This just happened to match what Gu Nan planned to do next. If he wanted to create a player army, then cracking down on Chamberlain was inevitable.
Because only when the player participates in the Shadow Cult Event and successfully defeats Chamberlain will the Shadow Sword Saint learn from this painful experience and honor his promise to give up the name "Shadow," changing his name to "Phantom Sword Saint."
And only then will the hidden class "Phantom Sword Saint" unlock for players.
So Gu Nan paused for a moment and said, "I'll go with you."