Chapter 9: The Gu Xilong Family (Part 1)

Guo Shier sighed softly and whispered, “Wait for an opportunity. Don’t resist now. Uncle Eagle Demon, Uncle Luo, let’s try not to get separated, or it will be hard to stay together.”
Just before stepping through the magic gate, Guo Shier saw another group of professionals being escorted from afar, which shocked him. He suddenly realized this place was a trap—those who entered never expected to be captured and taken away. It was a bold move to reveal the secrets of a hidden mine in order to attract a large number of high-level professionals.
Eagle Demon and Luo Zhan grabbed Guo Shier’s arms, and the three of them stepped through the massive magic gate.
Over a hundred high-level professionals had no choice but to follow orders and enter the gate. In this world, if you encountered an opponent slightly stronger than you, you could still resist, but if the opponent was strong enough to kill you instantly, you could only obey unless they chose not to kill you. Resisting at such times was not only pointless but also led to a humiliating death. Those who had risen to become high-level professionals understood this principle well.
The young man watched satisfactorily as the crowd entered the gate and said, “We’ve captured quite a number of professionals this time. Although their skills vary, the number is substantial. How many have been transported so far?”
A Grand Sage replied, “We set up a large magic gate in the western area of Jade Realm, and another one in the eastern area. Including this one here, a total of over 1,400 professionals have been transported so far. Nearly a thousand of them are at the Grand Sage level—quite a good harvest.”
The young man nodded and said, “Wait another two months, then completely seal off this hidden realm and make this coordinate disappear.”
Two months later, the coordinate of Jade Realm vanished entirely, causing shock among many high-level sects on the continent. With so many high-level professionals missing, various sects sent their best experts to investigate. Soon, clues pointed straight to Jade Realm. The sects immediately united and gathered more than a dozen super experts with altars to conduct a thorough investigation.
Guo Shier and the others were unaware of the uproar caused by their disappearance. As soon as they entered the magic gate, he felt that this teleportation was different from previous ones—the time seemed much longer. He silently counted, continuing until over 600 times before emerging from the gate, which took almost ten minutes. After stepping out, the first thing he did was check his interdimensional talisman, only to find that all coordinates were unusable.

Guo Shier thought that one possibility was the distance being too great, as even cross-boundary talismans couldn’t transmit that far, while another possibility was that this place was blocked, rendering any talisman doors unusable. But when he saw some of the great masters who had escorted them here use talisman doors to enter, he realized that talisman doors could be used here, but since he didn’t have the corresponding coordinates, he couldn’t escape.

It was an extremely large platform—Guo Shier could hardly see its edges. Hundreds of flying vehicles, resembling hunting carts, with strange shapes, floated in the sky above. Their escorts warned, “Flying is forbidden here. If you fly, you’ll be killed!”

Someone asked in a low voice, “What the hell is this place?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know!”

Both the questioner and the responder were filled with anger.

There were over a dozen large talisman doors standing on the platform, with people constantly coming out of them. The ground of the platform was divided into sections using runes. The area where Guo Shier and the others were located housed about two thousand people, seemingly brought from different places, dressed in various styles, which dazzled him.

It was the first time Guo Shier had seen what mutants were like. They were confined to a distant area, but could still be seen clearly. The mutants were terrifyingly tall, standing five to six meters high. Guo Shier felt that these mutants resembled the wildmen he had seen at the Northern Talisman Door, but even those wildmen seemed weak compared to them.

The professionals who came with Guo Shier also saw mutants for the first time. Someone exclaimed in surprise, “Those giants… where did they come from?”

There happened to be a local professional beside that person, who sneered and said, “Country bumpkin! You’ve never even seen mutants! Let me tell you, there are not only mutants here but also rare Aberrants! Those are the truly terrifying ones—tall as ten meters, with unimaginable strength! You’ll find out soon enough. This place is nothing like where you’re from!”

Guo Shier pricked up his ears. When he heard the word “country bumpkin,” he inwardly sighed—how arrogant! Advanced professionals from the higher continents were reduced to being called country bumpkins by these guys. What kind of place was this? He exchanged a glance with Eagle Demon, who whispered, “I suspect we’ve arrived in the territory controlled by the Ancient Talisman People!”

Luo Zhan was surprised, “Ancient Talisman People?”

Guo Shier shook his head and said, “Not necessarily. I tried a coordinate just now—one I got from the last inheritance. If this place is indeed the territory of the Ancient Symbol People, then this coordinate should work, but it didn’t work for me.”
Eagle Demon said with a bitter smile, “This is a big problem now!” The three of them hadn’t taken it too seriously at first, thinking these people were the Ancient Symbol People. They had received the inheritance from the Ancient Miluo family and had identity markers. Even if the Ancient Miluo family no longer existed, they still had the coordinates from their inheritance memories, allowing them to leave at any time.
After talking to the Ancestor, the three realized how vast this world was—beyond their imagination, with countless continents, secret realms, and races. But they never thought they would be forced to a completely unfamiliar continent, and what was worse, their opponents were extremely powerful, leaving them no chance to resist.
This world was too complicated. Even now, Guo Shier still couldn’t figure out how it was structured. Even combining the knowledge he had learned in his previous two lives, he couldn’t fully understand it.
Guo Shier said, “Let’s wait and see. There’s nothing we can do at this point.” His tone was calm. Eagle Demon and Luo Zhan nodded. At this stage, there really was nothing they could do but wait and observe. Suddenly, a phrase from his past life popped into Guo Shier’s mind: “Others hold the knife and cutting board; I am just the fish.” He hated this feeling.
After waiting for three full days, more and more people gathered on the platform. Continuously, people emerged from the Symbol Gates—groups of at least a hundred or so each, sometimes even several hundred. But they were no longer all high-level professionals. There were large numbers of spellcasters and martial artists, as well as many master-level and insane-level professionals, coming out of the Symbol Gates one after another.
From their varied costumes, it was clear they were professionals from different continents.
Guo Shier estimated that at least a hundred thousand professionals had gathered on the platform, of whom about ten thousand were high-level professionals, with the rest being mid- to low-level ones.
Someone whispered, “Why are there so many low-level professionals? What do they want?”
But no one knew. Some irritable high-level professionals couldn’t help but shout loudly and were immediately suppressed. If they dared to resist, they had little chance of survival. Guo Shier had witnessed three great masters being killed instantly—both for trying to communicate with the others and for getting angry.

Strangely, some people brought meals to the mid- and low-level professionals, but no one paid attention to the high-level professionals; they had to fend for themselves. Fortunately, most high-level professionals carried plenty of supplies, while those who weren’t well-prepared and only brought a small amount of food had it tough.

Guo Shier was low-key. The three of them silently ate their dried rations and marinated meat, at most using a copper pot to boil water to drink.

It wasn’t until the fifth day that dozens of high-level Grand Sage Masters arrived in their area, along with that formidable young man, accompanied by an old man. The old man’s presence was even more terrifying; just standing there quietly made the seated professionals feel breathless.

The young man flew up several meters in the air and said indifferently, “I don’t care which sect you belong to, nor who your disciples are. Since you’re here, you’re all members of our Gu Xi Long family! My name is—De Yu Xi Long! You may call me—Lord De Yu.”

De Yu Xi Long looked coldly at everyone and said, “The Gu Xi Long family is the most famous family of ancient talisman makers! One of the four oldest families! You should consider yourselves lucky to be able to join the greatest and oldest family of talismans.”

Guo Shier lowered his head, filled with fear. When he had received the inheritance from the Gu Miluo family, he had already sensed the cruelty and ferocity of these ancient families. If it weren’t for his Soul Scripture, they might not have survived leaving the Tan Ya Secret Realm. From this, it seemed the Gu Miluo family was also a domineering and tyrannical ancient family of talisman makers.

De Yu Xi Long paused for a moment before continuing, “You don’t need to overthink it, because even if you do, it won’t help at all. Here… all your talismans and interdimensional spells are useless. This place is extremely far from your hometown… With your current strength, you’ll never be able to return!”

The crowd was in an uproar.

De Yu Xi Long smiled coldly, seemingly satisfied with the effect of his words. He said, “But you don’t need to panic. Staying in the Gu Xi Long family brings great benefits. As long as you contribute your strength, you can earn family points… Here, you can exchange them for anything you need, and you can also receive the inheritance of the Gu Xi Long family, provided you have enough family points.”

Someone couldn’t help but ask loudly, “What if we don’t want to join your family?”

De Yu Xilong said indifferently, “Of course you don’t have to join! As long as you’re dead, I definitely won’t force you to join.” With that, the guy showed a twisted smile and asked, “Don’t you plan to join our family?”
The man lowered his head and said, “I’ll join!”
De Yu Xilong nodded and continued, “Everyone here is smart. I don’t want anyone to cause trouble. Good! You’re all advanced professionals, and the Gu Xilong family will give you certain status and power.”
Everyone fell silent.
De Yu Xilong added, “Now, those who don’t want to go over there! Those who want to join our family, come here to register.”
Guo Shier sighed lightly, thinking to himself, “What shameless! Who would dare say no at a time like this? This guy is truly a bastard!”