There was nothing unexpected about the monk-Daoist duo's information.
Two Star Rulers whose strength had already reached Tier 7, but who'd been slow to raise their astral worlds to Realm Level planes.
As for why they ambushed him, Red Tail and the others weren't able to dig too deeply yet and only knew it was related to Duan Wenqi of Astral Gate.
"I'll have to have a chat with this Old Duan sometime," Gu Nan tossed the information aside and said casually.
Gu Nan's mindset in playing games had always been optimal, never letting NPCs' provocations affect his development plan.
After all, if players were led by the nose by NPCs, wouldn't they fall into the game designer's trap?
Gu Nan, who held such a view long ago, could naturally ignore ambushes of this caliber.
In contrast, his long absence from the Divine Kingdom had resulted in a whole pile of matters waiting for Gu Nan to deal with.
The first was that no Divine Kingdom Wars had been launched, but the two dungeons were still being farmed nonstop, and a whole bunch of points had accumulated, so the raw materials for the next war were already prepared.
As long as a suitable invasion target was identified, the points could immediately be invested into troop production, launching an all-out strike with the most suitable troop types.
Another matter was that he already brought back seven members of the player army, and the next step would be their debut in the Myriad Heavens. It was time to verify the might of the player army.
Xie Yun and Liang Ruxin remained in the World of Gods while Lan Si also stayed over there to wait for them. In any case, Gu Nan wasn't worried about any accidents since Rolensia and Daoist Lingyang were looking after them.
It was already afternoon by the time Gu Nan finished dealing with matters inside the Divine Kingdom, and Red Tail handed over a new report just in time.
It pertained to the selection of the next invasion target for their Divine Kingdom, and the top target made Gu Nan pause slightly.
Star Realm.
Noticing Gu Nan's expression, Red Tail, who was also born in Star Realm, revealed a light smile as she explained, "This is a suggestion from the Cabinet, and most of its members have no connection to Star Realm."
Gu Nan knew Red Tail was worried that he would think she was taking advantage of the opportunity to avenge a personal grudge. After all, there was still an unsettled score between her and her fellow tribemates back in Star Realm.
But this wasn't what Gu Nan cared about. Instead, he asked with interest, "The Cabinet has already been built?"
"Yes, about three years after you left… Well, three years inside the Divine Kingdom."
The Divine Kingdom couldn't be left unmanaged for too long, nor could it be left entirely in the hands of a single person, and that was the reason for the Cabinet's existence.
In fact, the intention to establish a Cabinet had already appeared before Gu Nan left, and even the name was given by Gu Nan, with its main duty being managing the Divine Kingdom's internal affairs.
The Cabinet was headed by Yan Xiaoxiao and Red Tail, with a large number of political talents as well as think tanks to assist in the construction of the Divine Kingdom.
Of course, a significant portion of the military generals under Red Tail's command also held positions in the Cabinet.
After all, Divine Kingdom Wars were the main source of revenue for the Divine Kingdom.
"The Cabinet brainstormed over a dozen planes worth attacking and gave evaluations in aspects such as profit, difficulty, casualty expectations, etc. for each target… Star Realm's overall score far exceeds that of the other astral worlds."
Red Tail also read the report and eventually sent it on to Gu Nan, evidently agreeing with the Cabinet's suggestion.
Gu Nan nodded wordlessly as he continued reading the report from the Cabinet.
Just as Red Tail said, the report analyzed the specific situation of several planes in detail and made a judgment on them.
Among them, Star Realm's situation was indeed very much in line with Gu Nan's impression.
According to the report, Star Realm's Star Ruler had been injured ever since ten thousand years ago and was in a state of slumber for a very long time, resulting in extreme chaos inside the plane where multiple parties tried to set up independent regimes.
Compared to White Bones Realm, Clear Profundity Realm, and other iron-clad astral worlds, the difficulty of attacking Star Realm was simply at the level of a newbie village.
And a little over a decade ago, Zuo Zuo's invasion of Star Realm made matters worse, exacerbating Red's injuries.
With its Star Ruler badly injured and the astral world weakened, Gu Nan could hardly find any drawbacks to attacking Star Realm, except for the somewhat troublesome issue of communication inside the plane's starry sea.
"Then let's attack Star Realm," Gu Nan readily accepted the sound advice and agreed without any semblance of pressure.
"Yes," Red Tail immediately answered.
The Cabinet also attached required troop types at the bottom, which Gu Nan had no comments on. The Divine Kingdom already possessed virtually all of the common troop types, and there were basically no mistakes in the Cabinet's choices.
"Before we leave, pick three apostles from the group who will set out on the expedition who pass the test in terms of strength and loyalty," Gu Nan suddenly added.
Red Tail nodded in response, then inquired, "Do you need them to do anything?"
"No." Gu Nan waved his hand. "It's to equip you guys with some equipment."
...
The day after Gu Nan's return, a brand new structure was erected inside the Divine Kingdom.
It looked extraordinarily majestic and spectacular compared to the other structures, both in terms of appearance and size.
It was a palace that, when fully completed, was almost as large as half of the Evil God Temple; after all, it was a miracle structure that couldn't be built without an external blueprint.
On the first day of the Blacksmith Temple's completion, Shana, currently the number one general under Gu Nan's command, received her first weapon from it.
Shana's talent was truly unrivaled, and her strength progressed extremely quickly, leaving the other vampires in the dust in just a few years.
As for Lan Si, the possessor of a Godhead, she was far away in the World of Gods at this time, so this vampire got the first weapon.
After investing a considerable amount of points, what Shana got from it was a dagger.
"Komofil Dagger." Gu Nan instantly recognized the dagger's origin after just a glance. "High damage and high agility, and the self-inflicted damage buff trait goes well with the vampire race."
When one activates this dagger's unique skill, it can spontaneously inflict damage on the user in exchange for an extremely high increase in attack in the next strike.
Shana played with the dagger in her hand for a while, feeling the abundant power contained within. For a moment, she actually loved it too much to let go.
The quality of the equipment produced by the Blacksmith Temple was very high. It wasn't any inferior to players' equipment, and almost all of them were famous divine weapons in the game.
The first batch of divine weapons only went to a select few. Apart from a few apostles such as Shana, only a few people with outstanding military service received them.
And combined with the news that Red Tail was going to pick three apostles next, it would undoubtedly mobilize the apostles in the best way possible.
Gu Nan could ignore this in the past, but now he was in a hurry.
The Divine Kingdom War was the most time-consuming gameplay, and in order to accumulate enough points within ten years, he had to do everything he could to increase his efficiency.
"Then let's set off. Target: Star Realm."
A mere three days later, Gu Nan stood in front of a group of apostles and divine servants in formation and calmly uttered these words.
After many years, Gu Nan finally stepped onto Star Realm's land once again, returning to this large astral world that he first transmigrated to.
It's just that this time, his arrival was full of malice.