Strange ripples spread through space, and Ye Wu felt as if some kind of power was sweeping across everything, instantly scanning everything about her and revealing all her secrets at a glance.
The next second, a strong sense of danger arose in Ye Wu's heart, as if someone was holding a knife to her neck and could take her life away at any time.
The intermittent echo continued, "Die… Die…"
Ye Wu was surrounded by this frightening power, unable to move. She could only watch as the ripples transformed into a human figure holding a scythe that quickly swung at her head.
Facing a greater god-level existence, Ye Wu had no way to resist and could only turn her gaze to Gu Nan.
'Can this newly-advanced Unified Dao cultivator… Huh?'
Gu Nan, whose forehead was pierced earlier, had already disappeared from his original spot.
But the instant the figure was about to swing its scythe, a hand suddenly reached out from behind and directly crushed the humanoid's head.
"Death God? Doesn't feel like it…" Gu Nan's figure reappeared, some confusion in his eyes.
He sensed a greater god-level law of death in the other party's laws, but it was very different from the Death God in his impression. They shouldn't be the same person.
"Not one of the greater gods here? It doesn't feel like any of the Unified Dao existences either." Daoist Lingyang had come back upon feeling the stranger's aura vanish.
Ye Wu recovered from her shock and said hesitantly, "I, I've seen… that kind of power before…"
"Seriously?!" Daoist Lingyang suddenly turned to stare directly at Ye Wu.
Classmate Ye Wu was startled and quickly nodded. "I once felt a similar aura on an ancient object. It was a longsword left behind by the Lord of Death."
"The Lord of Death?" Gu Nan glanced back at Daoist Lingyang. He had no impression of this name, so this shouldn't be a character from the World of Gods.
However, the name's style really fit the World of Gods and didn't sound like something from the Myriad Heavens.
Daoist Lingyang frowned slightly. "I know this person. He was a Star Ruler during the era of the second generation of Saints. He was a well-known astral world pioneer, and his strength barely reached Realm Level."
The era of the second generation of Saints was also the era with the greatest astral world development in the Myriad Heavens' history. A large number of Star Rulers gave up their original Daoist cultivation paths and embarked on the path of astral world cultivation.
Since the Myriad Heavens had plenty of resources to plunder, the Star Ruler route obviously had a huge advantage back then, so many ancient Star Rulers participated in the development of astral worlds.
The fact that the Lord of Death could stand out among so many people and leave a considerable reputation behind was a testament to his ability.
Daoist Lingyang thought for a while. "If he has survived until now, then it's not unreasonable for him to be at Unified Dao Realm right now… But where in the world did he enter Unified Dao?"
It was almost impossible for a greater god or Unified Dao cultivator's ascension to be completely undetected.
By its very definition, Unified Dao referred to uniting oneself with a law, so other Unified Dao existences at the same realm would naturally detect this process.
There were only two possibilities for the appearance of a completely unknown Unified Dao figure. Either he had some kind of secret method to hide himself so that the ascension process wasn't discovered, or… he broke through to Unified Dao in another world.
It was just like how the Unified Dao powers of the Myriad Heavens naturally couldn't sense Zi Luo Elder's ascension, since it happened in the World of Gods.
"We'll know once we find him." Gu Nan didn't say much but pressed one hand on the talisman and activated it again.
The wound on his forehead had completely recovered, as if it had no effect on him.
"All who discover me… must die…" The exact same voice came again. The ripple-like power spread out again, and another sharp arrow shot at Gu Nan.
Incomparably dense shadows emerged, blocking the arrow, and the human figure formed by the ripples was directly caught in Gu Nan's hand.
The scythe slashed down with great force and accurately hit Gu Nan's neck. However, Gu Nan didn't even budge. Instead, the scythe instantly disintegrated, dissipating into nothingness.
This talisman was obviously a passive item that had to be activated. Only when it received external stimuli would a programmed response appear.
Gu Nan used the power of shadows to trace along the deathly ripples' origin. As long as the other party was still in this world, the aura of a greater god would act like a beacon, unable to be hidden at all.
But the result was… nothing.
"He's not in the World of Gods." Gu Nan frowned and said to Daoist Lingyang, "We're going back. The fight just now can't be hidden; the greater gods will arrive soon."
Of course it was impossible for no one to notice a battle at the greater god level.
Daoist Lingyang also knew this, so he nodded immediately and quickly disappeared. He didn't dare for his contact with Gu Nan to be discovered, or else he would no longer have a place to stay in the World of Gods.
After Daoist Lingyang disappeared, Ye Wu looked at Gu Nan and asked, "Lord Gu Nan, are we heading back right now?"
She heard Gu Nan's earlier sentence and also knew that the mysterious greater god was not in the World of Gods, so they would probably have to return to the Myriad Heavens to look for him.
"Wait a little. There's one more thing that needs to be done first."
...
Crescent City, Scholar Temple.
"Your Excellency." A young female priest stood before Gu Nan. "Ahead is the Scholar Temple. Please…"
Boom!
Gu Nan punched out without hesitation, and the priest suddenly exploded into a cloud of bloody mist. Behind him, Ye Wu's lips twitched, but she didn't say anything in the end.
Gu Nan slowly walked forward, heading directly to the Scholar Temple's library.
Of course he came for the information stored in the Scholar Temple. There were many files that Gu Nan didn't have time to read in detail, so the best method was naturally to move all the documents back to his Divine Kingdom.
Under normal circumstances, such a thing was naturally impossible.
Information in the Scholar Temple was extremely precious. Even if one wanted to access it, they still had to pay a considerable price or go through the back door like Old Hank did.
The only reason the God of Knowledge could retain so much information was because he made the information available to the public so that anyone could borrow it, or else he would be targeted by people interested in the files.
It was precisely because of this that no one had ever dared to take advantage of these materials. Doing so would be tantamount to making an enemy out of every god and truly offending the entire public.
Only Gu Nan didn't care about this, because he was already the gods' public enemy.
In fact, players in the game would often do this kind of thing after reaching the Second Round—they were already the enemy of the world, so who cared about one more crime?
Since there were players who liked to hide their powers and identities to surprise others, waiting for their identities to be exposed for excitement and stimulation, there were naturally also players who were unscrupulous and caused trouble everywhere they went.
Gu Nan's killing spree in the temple quickly attracted the attention of the God of Knowledge. This god, who'd been getting stronger through the ages, immediately descended.
The radiance on the statue flashed as a miracle appeared.
"Evildoer, thou shalt be punished…"