Chapter 267: Ying Ge's Surprise

Wu Gui held a grudge against Starry Ocean Pavilion—this was something Gu Nan knew a long time ago.

In the past, the Heavenly Mystery Dao Lord schemed Wu Gui and forcibly awakened her from the cycle of reincarnation. Only then did he obtain the opportunity to reach his Dao and step into the ranks of Void Cutter Realm cultivators.

He originally thought that after gaining a benefit at Wu Gui's expense, he would still be absolutely safe as long as he hid inside Starry Ocean Pavilion, but he never expected Wu Gui to chase him all the way to Starry Ocean Pavilion and eventually kill him.

This incident caused a big ruckus at the time, and Starry Ocean Pavilion lost a lot of face. Only then did it announce its plan to register all Prodigious cultivators in Star Realm.

It was also precisely because of this incident that Starry Ocean Pavilion's higher ups, who'd been relaxed for hundreds of years, suddenly became vigilant. This was why they reacted so quickly when Gu Nan made another move.

When Wu Gui started speaking, the events leading up to this matter had already flashed through Gu Nan's mind.

Just like how it was best to have a certain degree of understanding of NPCs' background stories when carrying out missions, Gu Nan had always attached great importance to this.

"Didn't you already take your revenge on Heavenly Mystery?" Gu Nan thought for a moment and asked, "But you still want to find trouble for Starry Ocean Pavilion. You have other plans?"

Gu Nan was suspicious of the other party's goal, but Wu Gui just shook her head slightly, apparently unwilling to elaborate on this subject.

"You just have to answer me—are you interested in participating?"

"Heh… No."

Gu Nan chuckled coldly and answered casually. He knew Wu Gui only asked because she felt that he was also Starry Ocean Pavilion's enemy, so perhaps they both shared a common goal.

But in fact, Wu Gui was overthinking this.

Players in a hurry to take revenge on NPCs are unheard of, because all players understand that as long as they keep playing, they'll surely become stronger than everyone else one day.

It was precisely because of such confidence that even if a boss easily crushed them, players could still calmly retreat to level up, buy equipment, and come back to challenge the boss again.

Leveling up by beating monsters was common sense. Conversely, being beaten by monsters also wasn't anything worth getting angry over—of course he'd be hit if he pulled aggro.

Wu Gui seemed to expect Gu Nan's rejection. In a rare occurrence, she revealed a strange smile and wordlessly cast a glance at Gu Nan.

This glance seemed to contain some deeper meaning, but she didn't say anything else and quickly turned to leave, making Gu Nan unable to guess her plans for the time being.

Gu Nan was still affected by Yue Jiu's curse in Star Realm. His recovery speed was still suppressed, so for the time being, it wasn't convenient for him to visit Starry Ocean Pavilion and try to wreck it.

What Gu Nan truly needed to do right now was nothing more than two things.

One was naturally to wait five years until Ying Ge could once again open the path to the Myriad Heavens Starry Road and take him to the Inner World. As for the other priority, Gu Nan felt it was indeed necessary to calm down and immerse himself in some experiments and research.

...

Immortal Demon World.

In the blink of an eye, over a year had already passed since Gu Nan left Champions World and returned to the Outer World.

And over a year in Star Realm translated to 12 whole years in Immortal Demon World, where time flowed ten times faster.

The various political and administrative systems Gu Nan introduced had been implemented quite well, and Immortal Demon World was getting closer and closer to the Divine Kingdom he envisioned.

Starry Ocean Pavilion placed the entire Star Realm under supervision, and the order to register all Prodigious cultivators—which everyone thought was doomed to fail—was actually forcibly carried out.

Starry Ocean Pavilion's determination this time seemed particularly firm.

Be it bribes, cover ups, or secret plots, all of them were suppressed at lightning speed, and at that time, the entire nine regions were stained with blood.

In a little over a year, Star Realm had completely transformed into a world where people could only "cultivate with a license," and those Prodigious experts who couldn't produce their licenses would be treated as unlicensed criminals and interrogated.

Even the Void Cutter figures sent by Starry Ocean Pavilion to the major regions seemed to have no intention of returning.

Besides its headquarters in the Central Region, Starry Ocean Pavilion stationed at least two Void Cutter cultivators in the other eight regions. Some regions even had periodic personnel rotations to ensure that someone would always be stationed there.

If the previous forced registration farce still made people feel that Starry Ocean Pavilion was throwing a tantrum, then this series of purposeful actions were enough to make many people realize something.

"This is… They're going to war?"

Gu Nan flipped through the intelligence reports from Star Realm and also understood the meaning behind Starry Ocean Pavilion's actions.

"Probably. Since that younger brother of mine has returned, he won't give up so easily." Ying Ge sat across from Gu Nan, sipping a cup of coffee. "It's getting harder and harder to find this place."

She was currently in Immortal Demon World, so it wasn't easy to drink a cup of coffee. However, it was much harder to locate Immortal Demon World's coordinates.

"That means my efforts over the years have paid off," Gu Nan replied with a light smile.

After returning to Star Realm, Gu Nan looked around for a way to move Immortal Demon World in order to void its old coordinates.

After all, this was his Divine Kingdom. Gu Nan didn't want too many people to pay it a visit before he could advance to Tier 5 and ultimately make a mess of this place.

Over the years, Gu Nan spent most of his time in Immortal Demon World, so much so that he rarely visited Star Realm anymore. Heaven and Earth Star naturally fell into Starry Ocean Pavilion's hands, but he didn't care.

Immortal Demon World was here, and Lan Si was also here—Gu Nan was too lazy to bother paying attention to much else.

After all, as long as he had enough time, he could totally establish another White Mist. There was no need to insist on keeping the original team from White Mist.

The only people who still had contact with him right now were people like Ying Ge and Wu Gui.

He and Wu Gui had nothing to say to each other, but Ying Ge often visited him under the guise of a normal little girl.

Although her strength still hadn't recovered much, she could travel freely between various planes just like Void Cutter cultivators. This seemed to be a characteristic of her nature as a lifeform.

"Did you want something from me?"

"Nothing!" Ying Ge picked up a fruit and stuffed it into her mouth. "Zi Dian went out again. I'm afraid of being killed, so I came here to hide for a while."

Ying Ge's true body clearly wasn't anything normal—everything she ate, she swallowed it whole without chewing at all.

"Oh right, I see you every time I come here. Don't tell me you stayed here all the time and never went out?!"

Gu Nan nodded without much hesitation. For a player like him who had a half "shut-in" attribute, staying at home was all too normal.

Ying Ge, however, stared at him in surprise as if she'd discovered a new continent. "Aren't you at Void Cutter Realm right now? Don't you have to collect world origins to refine your own laws?"

Normal Void Cutter cultivators were essentially the same types of lifeforms as Star Rulers. They could continuously advance by collecting world origins.

Of course, Star Rulers plundered world origins in order to construct or perfect their own astral worlds, while Void Cutters mainly observed the world origin and wouldn't easily incorporate it into themselves.

Seeing Gu Nan's silence, Ying Ge's surprise deepened. "It can't be true… Don't tell me you walked all the way to Void Cutter Realm without any guidance from others?"

"With the exception of a few enemies, everyone who could give me guidance was hacked to death by me."

"..."