Ascending the Heavens as an Evil God
chapter-501

Zhuangxuan felt that no one with a normal train of thought would choose to attack Graceful Heaven at this time.

To be precise, as long as Academic Heaven didn’t fall, no time was a good time to attack Graceful Heaven.

Zhuangxuan rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache. He started to doubt whether it was the right decision to win over Gu Nan again—such a war fanatic might lead the organization into a ditch.

Even if another Unified Dao cultivator emerged in the Heaven-God Alliance and Zi Luo Elder got a chance to catch his breath, there was still no possibility of a full-scale war between the Heaven-God Alliance and Academic Heaven.

This wasn’t a matter of strength. It was extremely difficult for Unified Dao cultivators to truly kill each other, especially in a one-on-one fight.

And if they couldn’t kill the opponent, rashly starting a war would only cause the forces under both sides to suffer a devastating blow.

Therefore, struggles between Unified Dao existences were often restrained. They were either only limited to the Unified Dao cultivators themselves, or each side sent their own representatives to fight.

Countless thoughts passed through his mind in an instant, but Zhuangxuan's final answer was, "We will fully cooperate."

He knew that Gu Nan was very dangerous, but he also knew that he had no choice. If Gu Nan wasn’t won over, the organization would very likely disband before the ten-year time limit.

And if the situation wasn’t as expected, then at worst, he could expel Gu Nan, which would similarly clean out the Heaven-God Alliance.

……

Just as Gu Nan received a satisfactory answer, Fang Chaoyun was constantly sending spies into Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom to investigate.

Fang Chaoyun was a very old Star Ruler. Before becoming a Star Ruler, he also wasn’t the kind of guy who immersed himself in cultivation. Instead, he’d been both a general and a prime minister before and was very good at handling political and military affairs.

Once the Great War between the two worlds started, Song Fei was busy dealing with the greater gods. The reason Fang Chaoyun became responsible for much of the Great War wasn’t only because he was Song Fei's disciple, but also because he really did have this ability.

If Fang Chaoyun had any weaknesses, besides being irritable and short-tempered by nature, it was probably that his personal combat power wasn’t top-tier.

Ever since he started learning from Song Fei, what he learned was "fighting against ten thousand people", so what he hated the most were fellows like Xue Ren and Gu Nan who focused all their strength on themselves.

When Fang Chaoyun decided to attack Gu Nan, his actions became more organized.

The mobilization of troops and analysis of intelligence were all conducted in an extremely orderly fashion.

This was also thanks to the Great War between the two worlds, which allowed the personnel in Graceful Heaven to get sufficient experience adapting to the rhythm of war. Now that Fang Chaoyun gave an order, it was just a matter of changing targets.

Compared with the enormous World of Gods, Gu Nan's "No Name Change til Unified Dao" Realm really was pitifully small.

Once the gigantic Graceful Heaven mobilized, it really wouldn’t be hard to find out the details of Gu Nan’s Divine Kingdom.

Fang Chaoyun wasn’t wrong to think that, but he soon encountered difficulties. Almost all the staff sent as spies reported the same situation to him—this astral world refused entry to all outsiders.

Old Fang almost coughed out blood.

What kind of eccentric astral world would make such a rule? Other Star Rulers desperately wished for a large population to gather and wished for all the Void Cutters to be permanently stationed in their own astral worlds, because these represent an astral world’s power.

Rejecting entry to outsiders was akin to isolating oneself from the entire world.

"Actually, we’ve been investigating Gu Nan's astral world ever since its location was exposed." A spy reported, "Starting from then… this policy has always existed, but it didn't seem to be so strict at that time.”

Back then, Gu Nan had been acting unbridled for a while, relying on the fact that nobody knew where his astral world was. So his astral world immediately received a lot of attention when its coordinates were exposed to the public, and many forces secretly sent spies inside.

Of course Graceful Heaven did something similar, which gave them this bizarre result.

Fang Chaoyun frowned heavily when he heard this. If Gu Nan had been implementing such a policy ever since that year, that meant it wasn’t a temporary decision, let alone caused by this incident.

"You said the enforcement of the policy wasn’t strict in the beginning?" Fang Chaoyun then asked.

"Yes." The spy quickly nodded. "Gu Nan's ascension speed is too fast, and his management of the astral world cannot keep up with this speed. Some of our people sneaked inside at the beginning without being discovered."

He paused for a moment, and when Fang Chaoyun frowned without responding, he continued, "But ever since it became a Realm Level astral world, sneaking in has been difficult… As long as Void Cutters enter, they will almost certainly be quickly discovered and expelled."

"Are they investigating all the Void Cutters who came from outside?" Fang Chaoyun’s expression looked a little grave.

"No…" the spy hesitated. "They don’t even bother with any investigations. Anyone who’s found will be immediately killed."

……

"Recently, three groups of people have been discovered trying to sneak in." Yan Xiaoxiao materialized a human form and sat on the table in front of Gu Nan. "I selected a few for interrogation, but the result was… we couldn’t learn anything."

"Learning nothing is also a kind of result." Gu Nan put down the document in his hand and rubbed his temples.

The fact that interrogation was ineffective meant the other party must have received extremely strict training. And fellows who could endure under Yan Xiaoxiao's hands were undoubtedly from a much more powerful organization.

"They’re probably from Graceful Heaven. Recently, there’s news that they’re gathering and mobilizing a new round of troops. It doesn't look like they’re simply going to the frontline battlefield."

Although Graceful Heaven used the frontline war as a cover-up, discerning people could still tell something was off.

On the other hand, Lin Huan had died in Gu Nan’s Divine Kingdom, yet Graceful Heaven didn’t respond at all. This in itself was abnormal.

"Teacher, do you want to send a small group of troops to harass them?" Yan Xiaoxiao suggested from the side.

Following Gu Nan’s level up, the Divine Kingdom also advanced to Tier 10. The ascension of the plane itself was a slow process. As the spirit of the Divine Kingdom, Yan Xiaoxiao was the first to benefit from it.

Her current avatar looked like a corporeal person, no longer a projection.

Moreover, this kind of avatar was inexhaustible and had no roots. If she wanted, she could even create hundreds of avatars on the spot and line them up into a phalanx formation.

"Go ahead." Gu Nan nodded. "There’s no need to notify Red Tail. You can just send the divine servants directly."

Divine servants were the most cost-effective cannon fodder. As long as they could kill enough enemies to recoup the cost of production, the points earned could be used to produce more divine servants, while the enemy's casualties wouldn’t be restored.

Yan Xiaoxiao immediately agreed, licking her lips eagerly, her eyes shining with something called excitement.

The more she fused with the Divine Kingdom, the higher her authority over the creatures in the Divine Kingdom. This was especially true for divine servants produced by structures—she could directly command them.

Sending a military expedition to Graceful Heaven was undoubtedly very cathartic for Yan Xiaoxiao, who hadn’t been on the battlefield for a long time.