After saying that, Gu Nan left first without further explanation.

Yang Yan and Yu Yefei exchanged a glance, knowing that Gu Nan was bound to have some inside information. However, they wouldn't ask if he was unwilling to divulge it, and they also didn't have the obligation to share information in the first place.

Moreover, the two tacitly agreed to keep silent about Gu Nan's involvement in this and even made up their minds to pretend they didn't know about it once they returned.

Gu Nan had hidden his identity to come and help Academic Heaven, and regardless of the actual reason, it was obvious that he didn’t want outsiders to know.

If they leaked this, they would undoubtedly bring Gu Nan or even Academic Heaven’s retaliation down on their heads, so it was better to not do anything at all and keep it to themselves.

Gu Nan also ignored these two teammates of his. He knew that after this battle, the two would most likely not be participating in the war anymore.

There weren't many high-ranking powerhouses willing to join the war to begin with, or else Academic Heaven wouldn't have chosen this kind of hunting operation.

....

In Academic Heaven, news of Claudia's death quickly reached Fang Chaoyun's ears by way of Lin Huan’s report.

"The two seniors, Yang Yan and Yu Yefei, have each returned to their astral worlds." Lin Huan reported as such, "On the contrary, Gu Nan is inquiring if there are any new targets."

"Two shortsighted people!" Fang Chaoyun scoffed disdainfully, then added, "The motive behind Gu Nan’s actions is hard to fathom.. But if he wants to help us kill gods, we don't have to stop him. Just give him a target."

Lin Huan, however, said with an awkward smile, "Master, the problem is that we currently don't have any targets for him to hunt."

"How?" Fang Chaoyun’s eyebrows shot up. "We have the whereabouts of at least 200 gods. Don’t tell me not a single one is a suitable target?"

Lin Huan stammered, "Gu Nan, he.. he plans to hunt Tier 9 gods alone."

....

When Gu Nan returned to the Myriad Heavens, he received a message from Academic Heaven saying there was no suitable target for the time being and asking him to wait patiently.

Gu Nan couldn't help shaking his head slightly, but he knew this was the norm.

High-ranked gods weren't fools. How could they run to the frontlines with a target on their backs before the war officially started? Even for the Myriad Heavens, most of the people currently assembled on the frontlines were normal armies.

Claudia was just a special case. The information Academic Heaven dug up on her daughter and son-in-law was actually nothing more than a front.

Gu Nan knew exactly why the Snow God had gone to the frontlines—she and Rolensia were mortal enemies, the kind with a rather deep grudge.

Claudia had been hiding her tracks ever since Rolensia ascended to a greater god, fearing that the Ruler of Luxuriant Blossoms would try to settle the score once the time was right.

And while Rolensia might not have been able to free up time to deal with Claudia initially, she clearly wouldn't let go of the opportunity this time. Claudia was almost certainly forced out here by Rolensia.

If Gu Nan wants to hunt another high-ranking god, he would probably have to wait until the war officially starts and look for an opportunity amidst the chaos.

The Evil Value each god gave was related to their level first and foremost, with a roughly 1:3 ratio difference between each level. But the lower the level, the more this ratio would increase.

Once the chaotic war truly started, Gu Nan planned to prioritize hunting the lower-ranked gods to push his Evil Value to a higher level before attacking and killing the higher-ranked gods to reach the threshold in one fell swoop.

This was mainly due to the fact that he would attract the greater gods’ attention if he went on a hunting spree to kill high-ranked gods as soon as the war started.

If the greater gods noticed him right from the start, then Gu Nan's identity might be seen through as his Evil Value accumulated.

After all, the distinct characteristics of an Evil God would begin to appear once his Evil Value reaches Tier 9 or Tier 10.

"My Lord, the new target has been selected," Red Tail walked inside the Evil God Temple and reported to Gu Nan. By new target, she naturally meant an astral world.

Evil Value had to be earned from hunts, but points couldn’t just be ignored either. Both had to be farmed, and both had to be planned for.historical

Even though the actual start of the Divine Kingdom War would be after Gu Nan finished collecting enough Evil Value at the earliest, preparations for the war had to begin now to ensure it could be waged at any time.

Using Daoist Sect Realm as a unit of measurement, only 1.5 Daoist Sect Realms were needed for Gu Nan to advance to Tier 10, but the so-called "1.5" was actually a bit awkward.

Daoist Sect Realm was already considered one of the more powerful astral worlds among the Realm Level planes.

Even other first-tier Realm Level planes like White Bones Realm could hardly reach the level of 1.5 Daoist Sect Realms.

But things would spiral out of control if he organized two Divine Kingdom Wars. After all, the big picture now was the Great War between the two worlds. Academic Heaven would not sit back and allow any infighting in the Myriad Heavens.

At that time, let alone Fang Chaoyun, it was even possible for Song Fei to personally take action.

So the best method was to simply find a Heaven Level plane from the start—the Divine Kingdom War playstyle was nearing its end, and as long as he could farm enough points, it didn't matter if he lost all the divine servants or even apostles.

When such a tactical intent was set forth, the Cabinet quickly selected a target.

"Imperial Glory Heaven?" Gu Nan raised his brow slightly, a little surprised.

The Star Ruler of Imperial Glory Heaven was Immortal Empress Taisheng. It was one of the more bottom-of-the-barrel planes among the Heaven Level astral worlds, with the Star Ruler position similarly coming from inheritance. Perhaps Immortal Empress Taisheng’s strength couldn’t even compare to Yu Yefei’s.

No matter how many competitors she defeated and how shrewd and calculating this woman was, power could never be gained out of thin air.

What surprised Gu Nan slightly was the fact that Imperial Glory Heaven was the target.. Immortal Empress Taisheng was a member of the Heaven-God Alliance, and a core member at that.

Invading Imperial Glory Heaven was tantamount to falling out with the Heaven-God Alliance.

"That’s right." Red Tail nodded. "The reasoning given by the Cabinet is that Imperial Glory Heaven experienced a dragon Qi leakage not long ago that led to various independent regimes seceding from imperial rule."

"Immortal Empress Taisheng spent considerable effort to quell the strife within her astral world. Now, the concentration of dragon Qi inside Imperial Glory Heaven has dropped greatly, so it's a good opportunity to invade."

Gu Nan continued looking through the dossier and realized that Imperial Glory Heaven was indeed a special astral world.

The unique existence known as dragon Qi was exclusive to Imperial Glory Heaven, and how much power the Star Ruler could get from her astral world also depended on the amount of dragon Qi her dynasty possessed, which made it slightly different from other astral worlds.

What's more, the Star Ruler herself couldn't attack internal rebels, and the plundering of dragon Qi must follow the rule of "kings can’t fight other kings", so the tactic of taking out the rebel leaders couldn’t be used.

"A good place indeed." Gu Nan couldn’t help smiling when he finished reading the dossier.

Imperial Glory Heaven was indeed a suitable target. With such a suitable target in front of him, Gu Nan no longer cared about falling out with the Heaven-God Alliance.

To be precise, he didn’t fear falling out with anyone.

In addition, the Cabinet also provided a reason that might not necessarily get used but wasn’t without merit: attacking Imperial Glory Heaven could be disguised as the Heaven-God Alliance’s internal conflict, lowering the probability of Song Fei interfering.