BXBX NOVEL Chapter 235: Duanmu
Of course, the dividing line Gu Nan drew was obviously more symbolic than anything.
People couldn’t leave their city states at all in the system Gu Nan set, and travel between all city states had to go through the shadow servants. In that case, what was the use of a dividing line?
Ever since Gu Nan slaughtered Azure Dragon Hall’s top officials, the speed with which Yan Xiaoxiao handled matters was clearly much faster.
But correspondingly, she revealed less and less emotion and gradually grew unconcerned about slaughter—or perhaps she’d always been such a person, someone who only cared about those she wanted to care about, except now everyone she cared about was dead.
Gu Nan was very satisfied with this.
He’d never liked testing people. Even if the other party had a 99% probability of making the right choice, there was still that 1% chance the person might make a wrong decision.
Instead of leaving that last 1% up to chance, it was better to not even give people a choice from the very beginning. Through external conditions, he forced her to take the road Gu Nan wanted her to take.
Perhaps Yan Xiaoxiao’s scope of sight might not be high enough, but she possessed one quality that Gu Nan appreciated very much—that is, being smart, or being able to adapt to circumstances.
She would never do anything irrational. Even when she wanted to stay behind in Immortal Demon World back then, she still tried to leave a thorn in Gu Nan\'s heart so that he would make a conscious decision to not use her.
As for now, she wasn’t even qualified to leave a thorn in his heart.
Even if she stepped into Void Cutter Realm, Gu Nan could still kill her with a wave of his hand. What’s the point of worrying about her?
After obtaining the law nullification crystal, Gu Nan\'s sight was already set on Tier 5 Star Rulers. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have used up a law slot to construct the law of resurrection.
"Teacher, the city states have basically been established, but the \'travel restriction order\' hasn’t been implemented yet. We are short-handed."
Yan Xiaoxiao stood beside Gu Nan, reporting with a frown, "The main reason is… Our people aren’t strong enough."
The travel restriction order naturally referred to the ban on leaving one’s city state, but it was obviously too early for this step right now.
Azure Dragon Hall had a little over a hundred top officials. This may seem like a large number, but it was completely inadequate when these people were scattered all over the continent.
Moreover, these people possessed only very simple intelligence, and they were actually weaker than when they were alive. It was even more impossible for them to guard the wilderness and enforce the travel ban.
No matter how well the city states were built, there were still plenty of loopholes to smuggle people in and out. In the first place, Gu Nan never believed that a ban on paper would make everyone obey.
He’d much rather prefer to allow a small number of people to sneak out, then send shadow servants to hunt them down—these people could also provide power to Gu Nan.
Moreover, if those who snuck out decided to return to the city states, Gu Nan would simply treat them like normal citizens.
In Gu Nan\'s vision, the city states were used to raise mid-level forces, while the wilderness, which was full of fights to the death, was more suitable for cultivating top-quality fighters.
"Let\'s leave it at that for the time being. There\'s no hurry to publish the status hierarchy either. Let people get used to the city state system first." Gu Nan replied with a small smile, "I will resolve the manpower problem."
He specially constructed the law of resurrection because of the unique characteristic of shadow servants.
In essence, those shadow servants were part of his power of shadows, so he could freely take them with him and travel back and forth between planes at will.
In other words, Gu Nan could cultivate shadow servants in other planes, then take them into his Divine Kingdom.
"It\'s time to go back for a while." He raised his right hand, which had a world’s origin floating quietly above it. It’s just that the world’s origin was covered with thick black fog, completely obscuring its original appearance.
……
On Heaven and Earth Star, Starry Ocean Pavilion’s inspection team had just arrived. As the one in charge on that planet, Red Tail was forced to personally greet them.
"So you’re saying that you can\'t contact Mr. Gu Nan for the time being?" Wang He was all smiles as he stared at Red Tail, but his gaze was a little unkind.
"Yes." Red Tail took a deep breath and barely managed to keep a calm tone.
She was also someone who’d seen much of the world, so she wouldn’t lose her cool just because a Void Cutter cultivator appeared, but right now… there were four Void Cutter existences in front of her eyes!
She’d met Zhou Xiaojing before, so she naturally recognized him. Although this Wang He didn’t have a famous reputation, he didn\'t look easy to deal with either.
‘But most importantly…’ Red Tail snuck a glance at the remaining pair out of the corner of her eyes. An expressionless man and woman were standing to the side.
These two were too famous!
‘I can\'t believe they actually came here!’ Red Tail screamed wildly in her heart. Starry Ocean Pavilion was paying a little too much attention to Gu Nan, and this kind of treatment was by no means what she wanted to see.
Wang He silently stared at Red Tail for a long time. Finally, he just waved her away without saying much.
"Gu Nan isn\'t here. Could he be deliberately avoiding us?" Zhou Xiaojing immediately asked from the side once Red Tail left.
"It\'s also common for Void Cutter cultivators to travel to other planes. This doesn\'t mean much." Wang He shook his head slightly. "But it’s a little too coincidental that he disappeared now of all times."
Starry Ocean Pavilion required all Prodigious cultivators to register but deliberately ignored Void Cutter cultivators—they were actually quite helpless about this as well.
After all, Void Cutter experts could break through the void and leave Star Realm at any time, and they could also return from other planes at any time. How could Starry Ocean Pavilion possibly hunt them down and force them to register?
That operation was too difficult, so much so that even Starry Ocean Pavilion was helpless.
"We must find Gu Nan. Heavenly Mystery mentioned him many times before he died," the man on the side suddenly spoke, but his expression remained stiff, as if his facial muscles were incapable of moving.
Wang He and Zhou Xiaojing both fell silent at the same time, then responded in unison, "Naturally."
But Wang He couldn’t help silently cursing, ‘This person was reportedly at the scene when that Buddhist Ancestor wreaked havoc inside Starry Ocean Pavilion. Looks like he lost some face there and is still holding a grudge.’
"The Pavilion wants us to thoroughly investigate all Prodigious cultivators. Based on news from the other regions, this job will take at least a month, so we can wait for Gu Nan."
When Wang He said that, the expressionless man gave a light nod after listening, then continued relaxing with his eyes closed.
Instead, the woman next to him spoke—not to Wang He and Zhou Xiaojing, but to the man: "Dad, Little Yin is causing trouble again. I\'ll go take a look."
"Mm." The man also nodded. "Lock your younger sister up for a few days. Don\'t think that you can do whatever you want just because you’re no longer in the Central Region."
The woman soon left, and she didn\'t forget to apologize to Wang He and Zhou Xiaojing when she left. She was unreasonably polite.
Wang He exchanged a glance with Zhou Xiaojing and saw the helplessness in each other’s eyes.
Going on a mission with this father-and-daughter pair was absolutely something they both loved and hated. The love was because both of them were strong, and as long as you could find the right way to interact with them, you would get along very well with them.
The hate was because this pair would definitely bring baggage in the form of a child. And to be perfectly honest, not a single person in that family of three was normal.
"Then we\'ll go make arrangements first." Wang He saluted the man. "If we find Gu Nan’s trail, we’ll have to trouble Your Excellency Duanmu to attack."
The man named Duanmu Sen nodded slightly. There was nothing to critique about his manners. "No need to be so polite. I’m just doing my job."