For Gu Nan, the benefits of Liang Ruxin's peculiar interpretation of his route still outweigh the losses.
Phantom Sword Saint was a melee class that specialized in direct combat, and the class change wouldn't affect Liang Ruxin's role as a close-range fighter, but it was different now thanks to his new ability—assassin-type characters could sometimes play unimaginably critical roles.
Because both the Myriad Heavens and the World of Gods were ultimately worlds where organizations were held up by a few powerful people, the destruction of high-end combatants often meant the collapse of the group.
More importantly, Gu Nan didn't have a shortage of melee fighters under his command. Instead, he was very short on such specialized talents.
Early the next morning, Gu Nan called Xie Yun over as well, asking her to try her hand against Liang Ruxin.
The outcome was unsurprising. Xie Yun, who'd been searching for gold mines all over the world just now, completely underestimated Liang Ruxin, who had just broken through to Void Cutter Realm, and she lost five out of five battles.
Towards the end, even Xie Yun herself felt a little dizzy and made several low-level mistakes in a row, leading to an almost overwhelming defeat in the last fight.
After the two left, Gu Nan looked at Lan Si. "What do you think of the two of them?"
Lan Si answered without much hesitation, "Xie Yun is stronger in terms of pure strength, but Liang Ruxin has more tricks up his sleeve and more experience."
Gu Nan nodded slightly. With Lan Si's current insight, her evaluation of the two was basically spot on.
Using the game's terms, Xie Yun was like a normal player with all purple rarity equipment. She was only able to play the game and was far from highly skilled in terms of technical skills.
Liang Ruxin, on the other hand, was like a professional player with all white rarity equipment. Although his stats weren't as good, he had far more skills than his opponents, and his experience was also more sophisticated.
However, the issue of experience varied from person to person. What Gu Nan wanted to tell Lan Si was actually the difference in routes.
"You shouldn't think that Liang Ruxin is more valuable than Xie Yun just because of this," Gu Nan said as such. "No matter how fast Liang Ruxin can comprehend his sword art, he still has to rely on himself to reach enlightenment."
Lan Si seemed to understand something and asked somewhat incredulously, "Don't tell me that Xie Yun can break through to Tier 5 as long as she has enough gold?"
In fact, even she herself was still stuck at the threshold of Tier 5. This was, after all, the difference between a god and a human.
It's just that Lan Si possessed a Godhead, so it was far easier for her to reach that threshold than others, and even if she was stuck at the threshold, she was still able to wield power stronger than others her level.
But Xie Yun… didn't even have a threshold.
"That's right." Gu Nan smiled. "As long as you pay money, you can become stronger—this is the only conscience greedy game developers have."
In terms of overall strength, the Pay to Win Expert could only be considered an average route. After all, players just needed Evil Value and points to level up, so it wasn't really that difficult.
Moreover, this route hardly provided any combat-oriented skills, and all its class-specific skills just made it easier to get gold.
But for NPCs who had to cultivate on their own, the advantages of a Pay to Win Expert were immense. No bottlenecks, no need for enlightenment, leveling up by paying money—this was the dream of countless NPCs.
"I'll take her back to the Myriad Heavens as soon as possible." Lan Si had already realized Xie Yun's enormous potential, especially when paired with the near-infinite resources of the Myriad Heavens.
Gu Nan nodded and instructed, "Take Liang Ruxin with you as well. Have them familiarize themselves with their abilities as soon as possible. I will most likely launch a new Divine Kingdom War soon after I return."
Lan Si nodded and left, getting to work on Gu Nan's list.
This was the only mission left for her on this side. As long as she delivered the information to Gu Nan, she could return to the Myriad Heavens as soon as possible.
...
However, Gu Nan didn't expect a perfect opportunity to deliver itself right to his door before he even heard news about that list.
"There's a little bit of trouble, I might need help from you guys," Sylvia said calmly while holding a cup of green tea.
This cup of clear tea naturally came from the Daoist Lingyang next to her. The World of Gods didn't have a drink like green tea.
"Oh?" Gu Nan couldn't help raising an eyebrow, a little curious. In his impression, Sylvia had never been a god with a lot of missions on her. Instead, she could be considered the type that really didn't make many enemies.
However, it was true that Sylvia rarely showed up recently and seemed to have something on her mind.
Daoist Lingyang looked like he already knew what was going on and chuckled from the sidelines. "Speaking of which, this actually has something to do with this old Daoist."
Sylvia glared at him in annoyance before slowly explaining what happened.
This matter was indeed related to Daoist Lingyang. Earlier, he schemed to kill Lewis. Though the process was a bit different from what he expected, the result was still quite satisfactory.
Lewis was most certainly dead after that battle, and the Dark Empire on Atalante began to fall apart, but one person survived.
Dark Warrior Goro, this genius character who had risen like a comet from mortal beginnings to godhood step by step, was still active in the main planes.
Back then, not even Daoist Lingyang attacked him. Not only were there numerous secrets on this person, but he was also rumored to have a connection to a certain bigshot in the Dark Faction and was by no means someone who was easy to deal with.
Of course, no one could compare to Sylvia when it came to having a backer, but it wasn't her personal matter this time.
Diana, Goddess of the Night and the Moon and one of Sylvia's few close friends, was now practically archenemies with Goro.
"After Lewis died, Goro left his faction and went solo." Daoist Lingyang helped explain, "There was a treasure that was originally offered to Diana by an apostle in a main plane, but Goro stole it."
Gu Nan frowned in thought for a while but failed to recall any entanglements these two had.
If memory served him, then Goro and Diana shouldn't have crossed paths, even if their laws were indeed quite similar.
Or rather, putting aside the part of Diana's divine authority related to the moon, it was even reasonable to say that those two had the exact same divine authority.
Gu Nan, who was familiar with the game's backstory, knew that Goro's law was precisely the law of night, and there was even a plotline that helped Goro become the greater god ruling over night.
"It's something from that side," Daoist Lingyang added, naturally referring to the Myriad Heavens. "It was originally supposed to be gifted to Lewis."
When Daoist Lingyang said this, Gu Nan understood.
The present was originally supposed to be given to Lewis, but Lewis had already died at Daoist Lingyang's hands by the time it was delivered. However, how could a treasure capable of tempting even Lewis truly be gifted without wanting anything in exchange?
Since it was no longer possible for Lewis to return this favor, the item was naturally gifted to someone else who needed it.
Gu Nan figured this out and asked, "Is it a treasure related to the law of night?"
"Yes." Daoist Lingyang nodded. "The Night King's blade from 7,000 years ago. Who would have imagined that it would become an item no one wanted, so it could only be sent here?"