When Zhang Yueying had silently counted to 354, the carriage finally stopped, and a voice traveled into her ear.
“Since you’re awake, don’t pretend anymore. Get off by yourself.”
Zhang Yueying knew that she couldn’t hide from a Prodigious grandmaster, so she could only open her eyes bitterly and walk out of the carriage. However, the scene outside the carriage made her despair.
She, who had been born in the north, recognized this location at first glance—she had returned to the mountainous northern region, thousands of miles away from Four Gates’ headquarters in the south.
She sadly and angrily pointed to Gu Nan and Lu Zhanyu. “Do you… Do you know what you’ve done?!”
“Azure Dragon Hall colluded with the Northern Jin Dynasty to lead wolves into the house in an attempt to start another war! The general at the northern border ordered me to head south with a secret message to ask the experts from Four Gates for help. But you guys brought me back to the north again!”
“You are the world’s sinners!”
Zhang Yueying’s words were filled with righteous indignation, and her face was full of righteousness. However, what greeted her was a sneer from Lu Zhanyu and Gu Nan’s expressionless face.
It had to be said that Gu Nan’s words opened a new way of thinking for Lu Zhanyu, which allowed her to understand that the so-called “protection” mission didn’t necessarily have to follow the target’s wishes.
‘Kidnapping the target also works!’
As for the common people of the world that Zhang Yueying spoke about… What did the life and death of this world’s common people have to do with them?
“Should I break her legs?” Lu Zhanyu looked at Gu Nan. “I think she has a strong desire to escape.”
“No hurry. I want to ask her something,” Gu Nan waved his hand and replied.
Zhang Yueying gritted her teeth. Lu Zhanyu’s indifferent attitude made her burn with fury, and her delicate little face was full of anger.
She could see that of the two, Gu Nan—the Prodigious cultivator—was the leader. Thus, she simply took out a seal and placed it in front of Gu Nan.
“This is the seal of the general of the northern border. Now you guys should believe me!” Zhang Yueying looked like she had taken out something wonderful.
The country always came first. She believed that anyone with a conscience wouldn’t coldly watch on while the nation was in danger.
For example, she herself also used to be a high-level figure of Azure Dragon Hall. It was precisely because she disapproved of Azure Dragon Hall’s collusion with foreign thieves that she decided to rebel… ‘No, I’m renouncing the dark to seek the light!’
Slap!
Gu Nan casually swatted the seal aside, where it fell to the ground. He said indifferently, “Tell me everything you know about Azure Dragon Hall.”
Zhang Yueying was stunned by his behavior. She stared at the seal and couldn’t speak for a while.
Gu Nan noticed her gaze. The corners of his mouth lifted upwards slightly. With a light wave of his left hand, the seal flew back into his hand.
“If you don’t cooperate with me, I’ll find someone to take the seal to Four Gates and order their troops to stand still and not to easily trust news from the frontline asking for help.”
Gu Nan’s words were like a heavy fist that accurately struck Zhang Yueying’s weak spot.
The girl who wholeheartedly wanted to save the country turned pale and finally realized how stupid her action of taking out the seal was.
……
“You’re saying that Azure Dragon Hall used to be the pillar of the southern region’s martial artists, but ever since the old hall master disappeared, it gradually started to commit evils?”
After hearing Zhang Yueying’s narration, Gu Nan’s face appeared curious.
According to the young girl, ever since the “Immortal Demon War” twenty years ago, the world had entered an era of decline. There were fewer and fewer powerhouses who held innate abilities—Azure Dragon Hall’s old hall master was precisely one of them.
Under the hall master’s leadership, Azure Dragon Hall began to rise abruptly. Their assassinations caused great trouble to the Northern Jin Dynasty, all the way until Azure Dragon Hall became a distinguished force in the martial arts community.
But two months ago, the old hall master disappeared without warning, and the huge Azure Dragon Hall began to split into several factions.
The one who currently controlled Azure Dragon Hall was Xue Haoran, the commander of the Azure Dragon Army and one of the four original deputy hall masters of Azure Dragon Hall.
“Twenty years later, the power level of this world has deteriorated instead…” Gu Nan combined Zhang Yueying’s words with his host body’s memories to come to this conclusion.
The so-called “martial artists with innate abilities” mostly likely meant Prodigious cultivators.
Back then, there were at least a dozen Prodigious cultivators in total from the righteous and demonic paths, and there were even powerhouses like the Demon Lord, but now…
Everyone knew that there were only three powerhouses in the world.
One was in Four Gates, one was an advisor to the Northern Jin Dynasty, and the other was the hall master of Azure Dragon Hall.
It was precisely because of the hall master’s disappearance that the Northern Jin Dynasty, which had stronger national strength, began to entertain the idea of invading the south.
“Have you seen your hall master before? Are they male or female? What’s their name?” Gu Nan pondered over the current situation and asked Zhang Yueying again.
“I don’t know.” Zhang Yueying shook her head. “Ever since I joined Azure Dragon Hall, the old hall master has always worn a mask. All I know is that she’s an old lady.”
Gu Nan’s lips twitched. “You’ve never even seen her face before. How do you know she’s very old?”
“She already had her innate ability twenty years ago. Don’t tell me that she can still be a little girl?” Zhang Yueying finally caught Gu Nan’s weakness and mocked mercilessly.
She figured it out. Someone most likely entrusted these two with the task of protecting her. Thus, they wouldn’t kill her, but they also wouldn’t listen to her.
Gu Nan couldn’t help shaking his head with a smile. Zhang Yueying may never know that what she inadvertently said was closer to the truth than she thought.
……
“Are you really planning to hide in the mountains for a month?” Lu Zhanyu asked Gu Nan with a frown.
In the distance, the two avoided Zhang Yueying’s sight.
If they reincarnated into this resource-rich plane but merely received a mission completion reward, then it would be no different from not coming here at all.
“I was joking.” Gu Nan shook his head.
Gu Nan didn’t care about the resources of this plane. He never had too much interest in resources. Whenever he ran out of money in the game, he’d just grab some from NPCs.
But this was Immortal Demon World twenty years later. He also wanted to see what his old acquaintances looked like now.
As for what he said in front of Zhang Yueying, that was just to make her nervous so that she’d tell the truth.
“Then where are you going next?” Lu Zhanyu asked.
“To Azure Dragon Hall’s headquarters. I’m going to meet someone.” Gu Nan looked calm.
A place that was a tiger’s nest to others was simply like his own back garden to Gu Nan.
After all, although twenty years had passed in Immortal Demon World, Gu Nan was still the same Gu Nan.
He was practically invincible in this world twenty years ago, so now he was even more so.
Lu Zhanyu looked at him suspiciously and finally understood something. She asked in surprise, “You’ve been to this plane before?”
“Mm…” Gu Nan nodded, not hiding it. In any case, she’d find out sooner or later.
At the same time, he also wanted to ask Lu Zhanyu whether she had heard of a plane skipping ahead twenty years in the blink of an eye.
After Gu Nan mentioned the time skip, Lu Zhanyu suddenly had an odd expression.
“In that case, that reincarnation organization’s luck really was terrible.” She looked at Gu Nan and said with some schadenfreude, “They finally colonized this plane after much difficulty, but they just had to bump into a plane leap. All their previous hard work has gone up in smoke.”
“Plane leap?” Gu Nan raised his eyebrows. The combination of these two words felt a little strange.
“In simple terms, it means that the plane leaps from one level to another. After the jump, the world’s origin and time flow would change, and even the world’s rules may be different.”
