By the time Lu Wen received the news, the entire Savage Beasts World had already vanished.
Disappearing along with it was Duan Wenqi himself, as well as some of his Astral Gate members—they all vanished without a trace.
"What the hell happened?" Lu Wen's face was horribly gloomy, and half-kneeling in front of him was a group of people from various organizations.
However, they all had one thing in common—they were the last ones to have contact with Duan Wenqi before his disappearance.
Fang Tun was one of them. This blue-clothed kid was very lucky that he had to leave Savage Beasts World for his last mission right before Gu Nan showed up, so he happened to avoid a disaster.
If he was still in Savage Beasts World, he would’ve disappeared along with it.
"His Lordship, he… he seems to have discovered something." Fang Tun carefully recalled the scene, even mimicking Duan Wenqi's expression at the time.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t provide much information at all, as he didn't even know whether what Duan Wenqi had discovered was a person or a thing.
Lu Wen’s expression was still dark. He had already gathered everyone who last had contact with Duan Wenqi and interrogated them, but he still couldn't get any useful information.
What exactly happened in Savage Beasts World?
After hearing news of Duan Wenqi's accident, Lu Wen’s first reaction was that someone was seeking revenge, and it was even likely that Gu Nan, who had just been attacked, was the one behind this.
However, he also couldn’t be sure. After all, Duan Wenqi was a well-known Star Ruler, and Astral Gate had also made quite a few enemies over the years.
Now that Astral Gate had been driven out of Zi Luo Heaven, it would make perfect sense for an old enemy to take advantage of the situation to take revenge on Duan Wenqi and frame Gu Nan and the others as scapegoats.
Lu Wen waved his hand to dismiss the crowd, while he himself sat back in his seat with a frown.
The silver dragon on his shoulder soared up and circled around in midair before slowly transforming into her human form.
As she gradually gained experience, Long Ling'er seemed to have grown more accustomed to her human form as well and would often maintain that form and imitate other people’s behaviors when discussing matters with Lu Wen.
"It’s not possible to look back in time?" Long Ling'er asked. She heard the entire message and naturally understood what had happened.
Lu Wen shook his head and replied, "Even time has been swallowed up. A piece of the River of Time disappeared and was quickly patched up… but the section that went missing is gone forever."
As one who controls time, there were actually very few things in this world that Lu Wen didn't know. He could see practically everything he wanted to see by tracing along the River of Time.
But this time, even the law of time had disappeared, so there was nothing Lu Wen could do about it.
Long Ling'er was flabbergasted, then pondered seriously, ''Could it be a plane collapse? I took a look at the situation in Savage Beasts World, and there is indeed a collapse point present."
The spatial collapse point was so obvious that it was impossible for Lu Wen to not have considered it, only he quickly ruled out the possibility.
"A natural spatial collapse would last for a very long time. Old Duan would never sit back and watch his own astral world suffer," Lu Wen patiently explained to Long Ling'er.
Lu Wen thought much further than Long Ling'er.
Spatial collapse was indeed the most likely scenario. If someone artificially triggered the collapse and found a person to stall Duan Wenqi, wouldn't it be possible to bring about this situation?
But while inside Savage Beasts World, just how many people were capable of stalling Duan Wenqi?
Lu Wen knew his old friend's ability very well. Gu Nan couldn’t do such a thing. He was afraid that it would take someone on Fang Chaoyun's level to achieve this.
And even if such a person did make a move, how would they drag Duan Wenqi into the spatial collapse?
Lu Wen knew Duan Wenqi's character all too well. Although the latter was sometimes very irritable, he was also an extremely calm person who would never let emotions affect his decisions.
Once he realized that the situation couldn’t be salvaged, he would definitely flee at the first opportunity. There was no reason for Duan Wenqi to die alongside Savage Beasts World.
‘It’s just a small astral world. With my old friend’s ability and my help, how hard would it be to find another one?’
All sorts of questions surfaced in Lu Wen's mind. No matter how much he thought about it, there would always be something that couldn't be explained, causing Lu Wen to feel an incomparable headache for a while.
It was Long Ling'er who, after a long period of silence, suddenly opened her mouth, "Is he really dead though?"
Lu Wen stared blankly, then stood up with a start.
……
Duan Wenqi actually wasn’t dead yet.
This Star Ruler who’d been consumed by greed was now trapped inside the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb along with the entire Savage Beasts World… and also trapped in Gu Nan's hands.
Inside the Divine Kingdom, Gu Nan tossed the orb in his hand up and down, a light smile on his face.
"Ah, Old Duan! In order to seal you away, I paid the price of a saint clone."
Gu Nan's original intention was simply to seal away Savage Beasts World and take advantage of Duan Wenqi's loss of astral world power to ruthlessly teach him a lesson. After all, with Lu Wen around, it wouldn't be easy to truly kill Duan Wenqi.
Unexpectedly, Duan Wenqi was calmer than he thought and discovered the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb in advance.
As a result, before Gu Nan could even activate his backup plan, Duan Wenqi tried to take control of the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb out of greed.
Gu Nan then used the saint clone to knock Duan Wenqi into the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb.
However, with Gu Nan's current points, a mere saint clone wasn’t actually a big deal anymore. Instead, trapping Duan Wenqi in the orb gave him some new ideas.
At the very least, Duan Wenqi was a Tier 7 Star Ruler. If used well, the Round Two phase would be much safer.
"Teacher, everything is ready," Yan Xiaoxiao's voice came from the side, reminding Gu Nan that it was time to head to the World of Gods once again.
This time, he was heading over to slaughter some gods to accumulate Evil Value while also bringing Lan Si, Xie Yun, and Liang Ruxin back in passing—but only if the latter two had already successfully changed classes.
Gu Nan nodded and got up. His gaze landed on Yan Xiaoxiao again, and he couldn't help sighing slightly. ''You still decided to take this path? By the time I return, you'll never be able to go back."
Yan Xiaoxiao's face, as in years past, flashed a light smile. "I was destined to take this step from the moment I was born."
Perhaps in the eyes of others, Yan Xiaoxiao was no different from her former self, but Gu Nan, the owner of the Divine Kingdom, was perfectly aware.
In a sense, the current Yan Xiaoxiao could no longer be considered human.
While her former companions broke through one by one, she had always remained at the peak of Tier 3. It wasn't that she was unable to take that step, but that she was unwilling.
She had taken a different path—she gradually fused herself with the Divine Kingdom, allowing herself to become part of its origin.
Because from the very beginning, Yan Xiaoxiao was a part of the origin of "Immortal Demon World"—the predecessor to the Divine Kingdom—and was forcibly pulled out by Zuo Zuo.
All she was doing now was reversing the process.
By the time Gu Nan advances to Tier 8 and the Divine Kingdom fully ascends to a Realm Level plane, the human part of Yan Xiaoxiao would completely disappear, and she would become the manifestation of the Divine Kingdom’s will.
If the Divine Kingdom was compared to an enormous artifact, then Yan Xiaoxiao would become the artifact's spirit.
At that time, Gu Nan's control over the Divine Kingdom would also rise to an indescribable level.
Read lat𝙚st chapters at fre(𝒆)webnovel.com Only