Zuifeng Tower.
The members of the Nine Heavens Guild were feeling somewhat anxious. They had been waiting here for a whole day, but there was no sign of Wang Nan.
"What should we do? If he doesn't show up soon, waiting here like this won't help."
"That Wang Nan is too mysterious. I've hired over a hundred players to help search for him. According to logic, if he's still in Tianyun City, he should have been found by now. But there's still no news of him."
"We only have two days left before that secret place disappears. If he doesn't come soon, all our efforts will be in vain."
Five members of the Nine Heavens Guild stood on the second floor of Zuifeng Tower, looking down at the street below, trying to spot Wang Nan in the crowd.
Then, one of them suddenly saw something and was pleasantly surprised, "Wang Nan! It's Wang Nan! He's coming!"
Hearing this, the other members immediately looked in the direction of the person's gaze.
Sure enough, Wang Nan was walking towards them on the street!
"He's finally here! That's great!"
They were overjoyed and immediately went downstairs to greet him.
A few minutes later, inside a private room, Su Nan sat across from a young man.
It wasn't his real self who had come, but his avatar, Wang Nan. At this moment, his real self was heading to the Tian Palace Pavilion to purchase the last bloodline and manual that Wang Nan needed.
"What do you want from me?" Su Nan pretended to know nothing.
He did this to mislead the other party. If he acted like he knew everything, he might arouse suspicion.
Indeed, his performance left the young man puzzled, "Great God, don't you know?"
They thought Su Nan knew the secret of the short sword, but now it seemed that he might have noticed that the sword was unusual, but he didn't know its specific purpose.
The young man quickly sent the situation here to their leader, Qian Yu, without hiding anything.
"Great God Wang Nan, you're the one who recently bought the short sword with 70 drops of Spirit-level beast blood from the Tian Palace Pavilion, right?"
"That's right. Why? Do you want the sword?"
"If you're willing to part with it, we'd be very interested."
Su Nan sneered, "If I'm not mistaken, there's a trace of the obsession of an ancient expert hidden inside that short sword. While I don't know what you want to do with it, once something is in my hands, I have no reason to give it away easily."
Indeed, he didn't know! Hearing Su Nan's words, the young man was surprised but pleased.
He didn't know how Su Nan had discovered the obsession of an ancient expert hidden inside the short sword, but it didn't matter.
All he needed to know was that Su Nan didn't know about the ancient cave and the secret place.
In this way, even if they brought Su Nan into the secret place, his gains wouldn't surpass theirs by much.
The young man quickly revealed everything about the short sword and its connection to the cave and the secret place.
After hearing the story, Su Nan pretended to be surprised, "Oh? So you're saying that the short sword is a token to enter that secret place?"
"That's right!"
The young man nodded, "As long as the Great God is willing to go with us to obtain the secret place, we can also tell the Great God something about yourself."
"Well, if you're willing to take me with you, then I appreciate it. But it won't be right away. You'll have to wait a few hours."
This time, he planned to go himself and leave his avatar, Wang Nan, in Tianyun City.
Wang Nan couldn't use the Book of Destiny, which meant that he couldn't use any of the abilities related to luck. If there were treasures in that cave, his avatar might miss them.
Before leaving, he also wanted to try out his earlier idea. He wanted to see if he could use his avatar to obtain the incense burner from the City God Temple.
"Waiting a few hours is not a problem," the young man said, relieved.
Afterward, they discussed some more details.
A cup of tea later, Wang Nan's avatar left Zuifeng Tower.
Watching Su Nan's disappearing figure, the people in the tavern exchanged glances and smiled.
"It seems we were overthinking things. He bought the short sword because he discovered something unusual about it, but he doesn't know about the cave or the secret place."
"That makes sense. We spent a lot of manpower and resources to find that cave. How could he possibly know about it, let alone the secret place?"
"That's even better. The cave is related to our leader's mission. We can't afford any mistakes. Wang Nan is too powerful. Bringing him along is the only way, and now that he doesn't know anything, it's to our advantage."
"Besides, to enter the cave, you need a key, and only we have the key. Once inside, whether he can come out or not will be up to us."
"Yes, the key must remain a secret. Otherwise, he will be wary of us. So, let's change our plan."
...
"Golden Bone Bull Bloodline."
On the other side, Su Nan left the Tian Palace Pavilion, looking at the bloodline in his hand with satisfaction.
He found a place with no one around and directly merged the bloodline.
After successfully merging the bloodline, along with the consumption of 80 points of demonic energy, Wang Nan had completed his fourth bloodline to perfection!
The number of premonitions increased, and he could now use it 54 times a day!
At that moment, when Wang Nan completed his fourth bloodline to perfection, other players couldn't sit still.
Many people immediately noticed the change in the rankings and were surprised.
"Four bloodlines to perfection! Wang Nan has completed four bloodlines to perfection!"
"This is incredible! It's said that each bloodline to perfection at the Spirit level requires a full 80 points of demonic energy. Where did Wang Nan get so much demonic energy?"
"He's too strong. In such a short time, Wang Nan became the first to break through to the Spirit level, and now he's about to break through to the Profound level?!"
"I wonder if he'll open the game for public beta again like last time when he breaks through."
Wang Nan's completion of his fourth bloodline to perfection had a profound impact on other players.
You see, the mainstream players were still in the late stages of the Profane level, and only a few could enter the Spirit level. Now, Wang Nan's achievement made it seem like he was just a step away from the Profound level, a speed that couldn't be described as anything other than astonishing.
Some were happy, while others were worried.
For those who hadn't yet obtained the qualifications to play the game, they naturally hoped that Wang Nan would break through as soon as possible. If the game could reopen with Wang Nan's breakthrough, it would be a great opportunity for them.
However, for those who had already obtained the qualifications to play the game, it was not good news.
Especially for some players who were ranked near the top of the leaderboards.
"Darn it! The first place should have been mine!"
Pointing Star Sect, Zhou Cheng's face was extremely gloomy.
He couldn't figure out how his originally promising start had turned into the current situation.
Looking at his ranking, he had already reached the second level of the Spirit level, not far from Qian Yu, who was ranked fourth. Given some time, he was confident that he could surpass Qian Yu.
But compared to Wang Nan, he was still far behind. Without any miraculous encounters, he couldn't surpass Wang Nan in a short time.
However, at this moment, he thought of something, and a cold smile appeared on his lips.
"Tianming Society, I hope you don't disappoint me."
Yesterday, the Tianming Society had also contacted him.
If it were to deal with someone else, he might have hesitated, but when it came to dealing with Wang Nan, he didn't even need to think twice.
On the other side,
The members of the Nine Heavens Guild, who had just entered into cooperation with Su Nan, were dumbfounded.
"How did he do it?"
Just a few minutes ago, Wang Nan was still in front of them, and now, in such a short time, not only did he merge the bloodline, but he also brought it to perfection.
"What should we do, boss? His strength has increased again. Will it affect our operation?" The leader of the group immediately asked Qian Yu through a private chat.
Qian Yu remained silent for a moment before replying, "Don't worry, that place is full of dangers. We sacrificed the lives of many players to explore it thoroughly."
"He may be stronger than us, but when we get there, he won't be able to cause any trouble."
At the same time, in the real world,
Several men in black had gloomy expressions.
"His strength has increased again, and it's only been a few days?"
"We can't let him continue to grow like this. We need to speed up our operation and eliminate him before the next crisis-related side mission for the human race opens."
"Otherwise, if he gains a large number of contribution points again, his strength will skyrocket once more."
"We've already recruited Zhang Yang, and with his current strength, he should be able to deal with Wang Nan. But if we let Wang Nan continue to grow, Zhang Yang might not be a match for him."
"It's a pity that we still haven't found that Lang Shisan. Otherwise, the chances of this plan succeeding would be even greater."
...
"Whether to consume 160 points of demonic energy to upgrade to the Profound level?"
Su Nan's gaze fell on his personal information panel, and he looked surprised.
"160 points of demonic energy? That's a lot!"
Breaking through from Profane level to Spirit level required 40 points of demonic energy, which was exactly the total amount of demonic energy needed for a Profane level demonic art to go from untrained to perfected.
Originally, he thought that breaking through from Spirit level to Profound level would be the same, requiring a total of 80 points of demonic energy.
But now, it required 160 points, twice as much as he had anticipated.
"If the increase is like this, does it mean that breaking through from Profound level to King level would require three or even four times the total amount of demonic energy for a perfected Profound level bloodline?"
160 points of demonic energy were not a problem for him, as it would only take him two to three days to accumulate that much with his three characters.
However, for ordinary players, this was a huge obstacle.
Furthermore, at this stage, breaking through to merge bloodlines was no longer completely safe. It would be accompanied by bloodline conflicts and loss of control, which was why many martial artists were stuck at the peak of the Spirit level for many years.
And it didn't end there. Two more prompts appeared immediately.
"Prompt: Your Wheel of Fate Scripture is at the second level. To upgrade from Spirit level to Profound level, you need four perfected bloodlines across three characters."
"Your character Zhang Yang is missing one bloodline, and your character Lang Shisan is missing one bloodline, not meeting the upgrade conditions for now."
"It requires all three characters to have four perfected bloodlines to break through?"
"Previously, when upgrading from Profane level to Spirit level, there was no such restriction. It seems that it's because I upgraded my Wheel of Fate Scripture to the second level."
"Now, to break through from Spirit level to Profound level, I either need to upgrade my Wheel of Fate Scripture to the third level or complete the missing bloodlines for all three characters."
With his thoughts collected, Su Nan continued towards the City God Temple as planned.
In the game, it was nighttime.
The City God Temple had once again regained its eerie and mysterious atmosphere.
Su Nan released his avatar and began to attempt precognition.
"Returning to the vicinity of the City God Temple, you know that the current City God Temple is not the real one, but a bizarre space constructed by divine ritual artifacts."
"With your avatar, which is not completely constructed from a divine soul, you have found a way to counteract the divine ritual artifacts. You plan to control the avatar, which lacks a complete divine soul, to enter the City God Temple and retrieve the divine ritual artifacts."
"You stand a kilometer away from the City God Temple, controlling the avatar as it walks toward the temple."
"The courtyard gate of the City God Temple is still unlocked. You control the avatar to push open the gate and see the four paper puppet demons inside the courtyard."
"Without any hesitation, you push open the courtyard gate and walk in. Your arrival immediately attracts the attention of the four paper puppet demons, and they launch a spiritual attack on you."
"Unfortunately, your avatar, being a product of divine arts, may seem to have flesh and blood, but its essence is a piece of jade imbued with immortal power. It has no divine soul and no consciousness, so spiritual attacks have no effect on it."
"You quickly grab one of the paper puppet demons that couldn't evade in time, and your controlled avatar tears it into two pieces."
"This avatar is truly a nemesis of spiritual attacks!"
Even though he had realized that his avatar had no divine soul, he knew that he could easily kill the paper puppet demons using it.
Seeing the remarkable strength of his avatar in the current precognition, he couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised.
"The remaining three paper puppet demons know that they are no match for you. They each enter one of the three main halls."
"Your actions have angered the creatures inside the main hall. The main entrance of the City God Temple opens, and a monstrous demon with a green face and sharp teeth appears before you. The demon seems to sense something unusual about you and looks puzzled."
"Without waiting for the demon to make a move, you take the initiative and launch an attack on it, attempting to kill the demon."
"The demon roars in anger, and in an instant, a giant sword made entirely of divine soul power shoots out from its forehead, slashing towards you."
"This is a giant sword entirely formed from divine soul power. The divine soul power of a King-level demon has solidified into a physical form. Although your avatar can resist spiritual attacks, it is not immune to physical damage."
"The giant sword made of divine soul power pierces through your avatar's chest."
"Divine soul power has become solidified?"
Su Nan gasped in astonishment. Divine soul power was already quite mysterious, and now, at the King level, it could not only deliver invisible and intangible spiritual attacks but also inflict physical damage.
Moreover, from the precognition, it seemed that the giant sword made of divine soul power was incredibly strong, capable of piercing through his avatar's body!
"Receiving a strike from the green-faced demon, your avatar is heavily wounded. Fortunately, your avatar contains the power of immortality, and with your bodily bloodline power being rapidly drawn, the wounds on
your avatar quickly heal."
"You control the avatar to use the Transdimensional Shift, instantly appearing beside the demon. You use your racial ability, 'One Force Shattering the Heavens,' gathering all your strength into one fist and striking the demon."
"Faced with your sudden appearance, the demon is unable to react in time. It is hit by your punch, and its body shatters into countless pieces, scattering on the ground."
"Did I succeed?"
Seeing this, Su Nan couldn't help but hold his breath.
End of Chapter.
Note: In this translation, the Pinyin character names remain unchanged, while everything else is translated to English for readability.