Gu Nan never met Zhong Qinghe before.
At least in his memory, he'd never personally met this Realm Level Star Ruler, although they did have some interactions in the past.
When Gu Nan first came up with the idea of a player army, it was because he took Zhong Die to the World of Gods and then used her as a test subject, making such an attempt for the first time.
Zhong Die was Zhong Qinghe's daughter. Later, because of her identity, people from Qinghe Realm tried to take Zhong Die back, but the outcome was self-explanatory.
But none of that mattered, because although the usefulness of the player army later on made it completely worth developing, Zhong Die no longer had any use.
Gu Nan still kept her simply because he didn't want the vampire clan's route to spread.
Zhong Qinghe's sudden visit surprised Gu Nan a little. Of course, with his current strength, he was no longer worried about a Tier 7 or 8 Star Ruler and could be as steady as Mt. Tai.
Just moments later, Zhong Qinghe was brought to Gu Nan. He didn't even go see his daughter.
"Lord Gu Nan." Zhong Qinghe looked very good-natured and was always smiling, resembling an ordinary merchant more than a high-and-mighty Star Ruler.
"Something the matter?" Gu Nan asked directly without any intention of wasting time with him.
Zhong Qinghe didn't take it personally and just smiled calmly. "I heard Your Excellency has a conflict with Mr. Fang… Do you need help?"
"How do you want to help?" Gu Nan asked noncommittally.
"In terms of personally fighting, I certainly don't have the ability to intervene in the fight between you two." Zhong Qinghe continued, "But Your Excellency's astral world is new. I'm afraid you lack the tools to attack and defend cities?"
It wasn't until he heard this sentence that the word "arms dealer" popped into Gu Nan's head!
Gu Nan initially didn't expect for Zhong Qinghe, a powerful Star Ruler, to actually come in person to do this kind of business. However, Zhong Qinghe established his astral world through business. This was probably his cultivation path; there was nothing wrong with it.
Having said that, the assistance Zhong Qinghe proposed was also very crafty, leaving Gu Nan no reason to refuse.
Gu Nan was only able to stall the war in his Divine Kingdom by relying on the player army, which gathered a large number of Void Cutters to maintain the stalemate with high-end combat power.
But Fang Chaoyun had already become aware of Yan Xiaoxiao's existence and was determined to gather his strength and conquer the city-states one by one. The upcoming battles would most likely be siege battles.
Although there were many city-states in the Divine Kingdom, the abundance—or lack thereof—of materials determined how long each city-state could hold out for.
Exactly as Zhong Qinghe said, Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom had always developed in isolation and didn't have much reserves in this regard.
"You know I have no money," Gu Nan responded with a smile, but his gaze was already locked onto Zhong Qinghe. Regardless of whether he had the money or not, he definitely wanted those weapons.
Zhong Qinghe seemed to have expected this. "Your Excellency, you don't need to pay money. I will send the goods here myself."
"The price?"
Zhong Qinghe answered with a smile, "If Your Excellency loses this war, then I naturally won't ask for anything. But if Your Excellency defeats Mr. Fang… please give this humble one a slice of the pie."
Gu Nan stared at him for a long time, then finally nodded. "Deal."
...
Zhong Qinghe was indeed a qualified businessman. The price he proposed gave people no reason to refuse.
Gu Nan had reason to believe that he must've made a similar bet on Fang Chaoyun as well, and what he gave Old Fang was also something Fang Chaoyun urgently needed.
No matter which side won in the end, Zhong Qinghe may not be called the biggest winner, but he most certainly wouldn't be the loser. Victory in a war between planes was enough for all participants to earn a lot of money.
"Zhong Qinghe is good at playing both sides. This humble Daoist also tried to win him over several times, but he rejected every time," Zhuangxuan also gave a similar evaluation after learning of this incident.
The matter with Zhong Qinghe was quickly forgotten by Gu Nan. Right now, he was setting foot onto Graceful Heaven.
Gu Nan didn't come alone this time. Instead, he came on a starship with a group of Heaven-God Alliance members.
With Gu Nan's current level, direct entry was akin to lighting a huge light bulb in the dark, unable to hide himself at all.
But under the cover of the starship, it wouldn't be as easy to discover him after he entered Graceful Heaven. After all, existences like Yan Xiaoxiao were rare, and Graceful Heaven obviously didn't have such a luxury.
Zhuangxuan also came. He needed to personally oversee the setup of the Blood Sacrifice Formation.
"You made a very decisive bet." Gu Nan glanced at Zhuangxuan.
Personally participating in this matter was tantamount to becoming mortal enemies with Academic Heaven, with no chance of turning back. Furthermore, if things went wrong, since the Heaven-God Alliance could abandon Gu Nan, they could naturally also abandon him, Zhuangxuan.
Zhuangxuan's face remained impassive as he said truthfully, "This is the best way to prevent Senior from not acknowledging this matter afterwards."
Gu Nan laughed involuntarily.
In fact, Zhuangxuan was absolutely right. Accepting someone else's help and then reneging on his promise once he received that help was definitely something Gu Nan would do.
There were all too many players who took money from NPCs without fulfilling their promises.
Instead, Zhuangxuan chose to completely side with Gu Nan. If Gu Nan decided to fall out with him and refuse to acknowledge Zhuangxuan's help afterwards, the loss of reputation would be way too serious.
This is equivalent to adding restrictions to the mission: giving up the mission will result in a significant loss of map reputation. As a result, the cost of falling out suddenly increased.
Seeing Zhuangxuan's extreme "sincerity", Gu Nan stopped mentioning it and quickly devoted himself to setting up the Blood Sacrifice Formation.
Blood sacrifice wasn't as simple as drawing a formation on the ground and throwing in a couple of energy sources.
Completing the targeted blood sacrifice required the formation itself to have high power, and in order to correctly gather and transport the power obtained from the blood sacrifice, a close link between the sub-formations was required.
One of the later steps required Gu Nan to finish the setup of each sub-formation himself, and he must provide the source of blood sacrifice, which was the crimson skull.
If not even that skull participated in the formation, how could the formation transmit power?
Actual formation setup wasn't a game where the power could be transported to any desired location.
Moreover, Old Fang wasn't a fool. While he went to the frontlines himself, how could he not have anyone guarding his home?
Normally, no other Star Rulers were in Graceful Heaven, but during this critical wartime, it was completely normal for Fang Chaoyun to ask a few martial brothers to help.
It would be hard to fully avoid attracting Graceful Heaven's attention as they continued setting up the Blood Sacrifice Formation. When that happens, Gu Nan will need to take action.
So Fang Chaoyun and Gu Nan both ran to each other's astral worlds with their own schemes. One began to openly attack cities, while the other secretly planned to "destroy the world."