"Black Robe?" The other party quickly revealed a look of shock when she saw Gu Nan, then exclaimed with an odd expression.
Due to his frequent trips to the major Star Ruler gathering places in Heavenly Province World, Gu Nan's identity as "Black Robe" was quite well known nowadays.
Long Jiayu, a Star Ruler who was quite famous in the weaker Star Rulers' circles, had gotten her fame from her special law, the law of true knowledge.
At its essence, the law of true knowledge was a branch of knowledge, and when it came to Long Jiayu, it could be described by another phrase: "There is always only one truth!"
To put it simply, Long Jiayu was a detective Star Ruler, and her daily activities consisted of exploring and researching certain special events to find the truth behind them.
"Are you also here to search for the Ghost of the battlefield?" Long Jiayu asked with a very friendly smile, looking at Gu Nan.
This Star Ruler was a harmless-looking young girl with short coffee-colored hair and a casual outfit, but a Star Ruler's actual age and true nature could never be discerned from their appearance.
"Mm." Gu Nan nodded. He was already here, so there was no point hiding it.
"I received a message from a friend and ran here to take a look." Long Jiayu continued, "From the looks of it, the God of Giantwood really did die here."
"It could also be Ren Fu's act." Gu Nan spoke casually, "If he was working with the God of Giantwood, they might be able to create this scene."
Long Jiayu froze for a moment before nodding. "You have a point…"
She didn't have Gu Nan's ability to tell if the God of Giantwood was dead from the aura here alone. Only looking at this forest of giant trees, it might have been the result of the god's death, but it was also true that it could've been created by the god himself.
After leading the young detective into blind guesses with a casual remark, Gu Nan didn't remain and quickly disappeared.
After he left, Long Jiayu stared at the forest of giant trees, then turned her head to glance at the spot where Gu Nan just disappeared, her lips curling into a faint smile.
...
After confirming that the God of Giantwood was dead and that it was a mystery person's handiwork, Gu Nan stopped his investigation and continued his hunt.
Of course, it could also be said that because there were too few clues, Gu Nan hadn't found a direction to investigate and could only wait for the other party to make a mistake and reveal more information.
As long as the other party planned to continue killing gods, their information would be exposed sooner or later.
If possible, Gu Nan didn't mind killing this competitor of his. After all, the other killer's existence had already seriously damaged the "hunting ecology" and would attract more attention to Ghost.
The Godhead in Ren Fu's hands was eventually bought by another Star Ruler at an enormous price. The buyer then disappeared without a trace, clearly rushing to raise as many Void Cutters as possible.
Because of Ren Fu's previous publicity, the number of people who knew about Ghost gradually increased.
Possibly due to this, Gu Nan wasn't able to find traces of the other Ghost's appearance in the following days.
He himself simply sped up his pace, slightly increasing the number of gods he harvested each day.
A little over half a month later, Gu Nan's Evil Value was approaching the 60,000 mark, and the large number of gods and Star Rulers killed left both sides a little overwhelmed. The war was beginning to enter the next stage.
The next stage naturally involved battles between higher-ranked powerhouses, and usually the winners and losers of the previous stage determined which side was on the offensive.
In terms of overall numbers, with the faster time flow and the large number of small planes, the Myriad Heavens undoubtedly had a great advantage.
However, after entering the next stage, the Myriad Heavens' high-level Star Rulers had no motivation to help in the war, so their side started to pale in comparison.
Often, a Realm Level Star Ruler finally managed to find an opening after much difficulty, only to realize there were several gods of the same level waiting on the opposite side, and in the end, they could only turn and flee.
On the contrary, Gu Nan increasingly felt like a fish back in water. No matter what level the godly ambushers were at, as long as they were taken by surprise, very few of them could dodge this bullet.
It's just that the other Ghost showed up less and less during this period, not giving Gu Nan any opportunity to catch the other party.
All the way until the war escalated to Realm Level, that other Ghost rarely showed up again and soon vanished completely.
Gu Nan didn't really care. As long as no one was "stealing business" from him, he didn't really care who was impersonating him, and it was none of his business anyway.
However, there was one thing that even Gu Nan didn't expect—the other Ghost wasn't a single person, but a group.
...
In one of the small frontline planes in the Myriad Heavens, several black-clothed people were talking.
"Those gods are also getting smarter. They're becoming harder to deal with. We almost failed this time," one of them grumbled. His face was a bit pale, evidently still injured.
Another voice picked up, "The gods showing up now are at least Tier 7. They're indeed not easy to deal with… We were only able to smoothly kill the God of Giantwood last time because it just so happened that we could counter his powers."
The injured man in black couldn't help saying, "Really makes you wonder who that real Ghost is… I heard he's still hunting gods?"
"Yes." Their leader nodded slightly. No emotion could be seen on his face.
"Tsk tsk, he's probably some bigshot. He should at least be a Heaven Level existence."
The several black-robed figures couldn't help speculating about the true identity of "Ghost", but in the end, it was their leader who interrupted them.
"Let's drop this." He gave a light cough. "The war between the two worlds is our chance. Collect as much power of faith as possible from that side so that our Cult Master can return as soon as possible!"
"We understand!" The crowd of black-robed figures responded in unison.
...
The Great War had been unfolding for nearly two and a half months. The levels of the participating gods were getting higher and higher, but the pace of the war was gradually slowing down.
Often, there would be as long as half a month of peace and quiet, then suddenly a major battle would occur, with even high-level gods and Star Rulers showing up.
Such a situation gave Gu Nan a bit of a headache, as it was less convenient for him to fish in troubled waters.
Just two days ago, he witnessed the fall of a Tier 7 god, yet even until the very end, he never made a move.
There was no other reason—it was because there were too many Star Rulers around, and it wasn't quite worth it for a mere Tier 7 god.
Well, if it had been a Tier 8 god, perhaps Gu Nan would've stolen that kill.
However, such an experience also made Gu Nan realize that the good old days of taking advantage of the chaos to wantonly harvest Evil Value was almost at an end.
Next, he had to gradually increase the level of his target, and instead of "killing many low-level gods for a small amount of experience", he had to start preparing for the "kill a target with enough experience to last him three years" path.
But at this very moment, a message from the Divine Kingdom appeared in front of Gu Nan.
Academic Heaven, which had been silent for a long time, finally couldn't help contacting Gu Nan once the war gradually escalated into a high-level exchange.
"It came at just the right time." Gu Nan's lips curled into a faint smile as he read the details of the target given in the message.
This target was both a stranger and an acquaintance.
Demon Lord Alfred, the flame archmage from Hell. They never met each other before, yet both had heard of each other.
Alfred was likewise one of the key members of the Heaven-God Alliance. He joined the Alliance very early on, so his name had naturally been reported to Gu Nan long ago.
The fact that Academic Heaven made him the target was undoubtedly a further test for Gu Nan.