After Song Fei left, no one else interfered with Gu Nan's blood sacrifice.
However, just to guard against the unexpected, the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb that he placed in advance still worked, and the entire Graceful Heaven was sealed inside it. The majority of the blood sacrifice was completed inside the orb.
On the other hand, Duan Wenqi, who was originally imprisoned in the orb, was finally freed. Gu Nan let him out to make room for Graceful Heaven.
Together with his Savage Beasts World, they both returned to their original positions.
After Fang Chaoyun died and Gu Nan took away Graceful Heaven, he could finally wait for the blood sacrifice to finish and then take out the crimson skull.
In other words, Gu Nan just needed to stay at home and wait for the Second Round to finish now.
...
While Gu Nan was waiting for the Second Round, the Thirteen Heavens convened again. Zi Luo Elder was still not present, but the attitude of the thirteen bigshots was different from before.
The last Unified Dao meeting was to deal with the potential Great War between the two worlds, while this time, it was to prepare for the possible arrival of a new member.
That's right: Zi Luo Elder, who could only exist for ten years, wasn't yet acknowledged by these people, but Gu Nan, who'd displayed astonishing power, was viewed as someone who would almost certainly ascend to Unified Dao.
"So you met him?" Zou Jiming was still the first to speak, staring at the Yu Lian who just appeared.
Regarding Gu Nan's rapid growth, Yu Lian, who'd personally met him, undoubtedly had the most say.
As for Song Fei… because he was screwed over before, Zou Jiming just wanted to completely ignore this person now.
Yu Lian didn't mind and nodded. "The ascension aura on his body is already very obvious, and the current him also possesses some characteristics of Unified Dao Realm."
The monstrous, distorted aura Gu Nan gave off couldn't be hidden and was naturally noticed by Yu Lian.
Perhaps the gods could only see the monstrous aspect, but the Unified Dao existences from the Myriad Heavens had other opinions.
They held no prejudice against Evil Gods and only regarded them as a special path. There were countless Great Daos, all of which could reach Unified Dao Realm.
After Yu Lian finished speaking, the remaining twelve Unified Dao figures all had different expressions. Qin Guanruo walked up to Song Fei and shook his head.
He had a good personal relationship with Song Fei, but now he came to persuade Song Fei to stop. If his disciples died, he could still train more. But if he obstinately opposed Gu Nan to the end, both sides would suffer losses.
Song Fei waved his hand to indicate that he was fine, apparently able to accept this outcome.
The ascension of practically every Unified Dao cultivator was not smooth-sailing, and there would almost always be conflicts with other forces to some extent.
Back when Song Fei broke through, he stepped over Zi Luo Elder to ascend to his current position. Now, that karma was simply coming back to bite him.
"As for power." Yu Lian paused, then said, "In ancient times, our Daoist sect referred to Unified Dao cultivators as 'Saints'. I think it's time to use the current Gu Nan as a benchmark to establish a Half-Saint Realm."
"In that case, we'll ignore Austin's demand?" Milky Way Heaven's Si Yun spoke up. He was one of the Unified Dao powers more hostile to gods.
His Milky Way Heaven's cultivation path placed equal emphasis on metaphysics and technology and attached great importance to exploring the wisdom of mortals, so he scorned the gods' use of faith.
"He called Gu Nan the public enemy of the gods. If we don't give Gu Nan to them, I'm afraid a real Great War will be inevitable," Song Fei interjected. He'd already heard Austin's words by now.
Lu Wen said with a sneer, "If they want a fight, we're happy to oblige. If we just give them whomever they want, then will we even have any face left?"
Regardless of whether they had a personal vendetta against Gu Nan, directly lowering their heads and surrendering Gu Nan to the gods would make the entire Myriad Heavens lose face.
Immediately afterwards, several more people spoke their opinions, which were all similar to Lu Wen's. Regardless of whether Gu Nan could ascend or not, it was impossible for them to allow the gods to take him away just like that.
Finally, Yu Lian looked around. "Then it's decided."
...
While the Unified Dao powerhouses were discussing Gu Nan, all the major forces in the Myriad Heavens were equally astonished by his impressive feat this time.
There has never been a normal Star Ruler capable of completely blasting apart an opponent like Fang Chaoyun—who even had the blessing of his astral world—with one punch.
Likewise, there has never been a normal Star Ruler who could tank two attacks from a Unified Dao powerhouse and still act like nothing happened afterwards.
The specific content of the Thirteen Heavens' meeting naturally wasn't announced to the public, but Yu Lian's evaluation of Gu Nan's strength somehow circulated.
Thus, the idea of adding a "Half-Saint" realm between the peak of Star Ruler Realm and Unified Dao Realm began to spread among the Myriad Heavens.
"With just one person's power, he created an entirely new cultivation realm. This fellow really is impressive."
In Extreme Sword Heaven, Xue Ren commented with a faint smile as he sipped a cup of tea.
Although his words sounded envious, there was no emotion in his voice, only tranquility.
Immortal Empress Taisheng was still with him. Seeing Xue Ren's reaction, she couldn't help asking, "You don't seem surprised?"
"Of course I'm not surprised." Xue Ren smiled, pointing to the wound on his chest. "After all, I was the first witness of this Half-Saint Realm."
Immortal Empress Taisheng remained silent for a long time. She seemed to feel that Xue Ren's words undermined himself a bit too much, so she couldn't help saying, "If he doesn't successfully enter Unified Dao, being a Half-Saint is just a joke."
She looked up at Xue Ren again. "This injury will allow you to recuperate quietly and properly focus on breaking through. You should go into isolated cultivation as soon as possible. Don't waste time."
However, Xue Ren shook his head with a smile. "I'm already in isolated cultivation."
...
In Star Realm, the maiden Wu Gui rushed to Red and advised her to leave her astral world and hide herself for the time being.
In Void Grotto Heaven, the first thing Yu Lian did when she returned to her astral world was to send someone to warn Daoist Monarch Wu Tian to drop all thoughts of becoming Gu Nan's enemy again.
Lu Wen, Duan Wenqi, the Heaven-God Alliance… Be they Gu Nan's former enemies or friends, all of them completely changed their attitudes towards him after this incident.
Not even Unified Dao powerhouses could kill him. This meant that as long as Gu Nan didn't court death, even if he had to wait thousands or tens of thousands of years, he would still advance to Unified Dao sooner or later.
...
Austin immediately informed all the greater gods of the Evil God's existence as soon as he returned to the World of Gods.
Unlike the Unified Dao cultivators next door, the greater gods attached the utmost importance to the existence of Evil Gods, almost to the point of affecting their survival as a species.
Because in the ancient legends of the World of Gods, the first greater god in the ancient era was the God of Creation. He created the world, but he also created Evil Gods.
And Evil Gods exist precisely to destroy the world. Even the God of Creation ultimately chose to sacrifice himself in order to seal the extremely powerful Evil God.
"The Evil God from ancient times actually reincarnated into the Myriad Heavens?" Eugene, the Ruler of War, asked with a frown.
While he was very bellicose, that didn't mean he didn't understand how much trouble the separation of the two worlds would cause for them.
"But the Evil God must die," Goddess of Darkness Daisy said decisively.
"Of course, but…" the Ruler of Nightmares chuckled. "Before that, I want to share some new discoveries with you. Perhaps we can use this to our advantage."
As the Ruler of Nightmares finished, a scene slowly appeared in front of everyone. It was the scene of a group of people sneaking into a certain Divine Kingdom to seize the power of faith.
"What do these people from the Myriad Heavens need the power of faith for?" Goddess of Nature Daphne frowned and asked.
"Divine power isn't the only thing faith can transform into." The Ruler of Nightmares' smile grew more and more mysterious. "It's a power of the psyche first and foremost, so it can also become… the power of the dream realm."