Chapter 8: The Guest Patriarch (Part 1)

Patriarch Nan Qiang smiled slightly, took out an identity token, and placed it in front of Guo Shier, saying, “This is the identity token of the Guest Patriarch. I hope you’ll accept it.”
Nan You gasped in shock. He knew that a family could have at most a dozen or so Guest Patriarchs, and it was quite alarming that such a status was given to Guo Shier. Patriarch-level professionals held a status entirely different from that of clan elders; they were individuals who could enter the core circle of the family, and even Guest Patriarchs possessed great power.
Generally, most patriarch-level professionals in ancient families had three or more altars. It was rare for someone with only two altars to be granted the status of a patriarch, unless they were exceptionally powerful enough to defeat those with three altars, in which case an exception might be made. Guo Shier had not only defeated experts with three altars but also those with four altars—such formidable strength indeed justified the Gu Nan family granting him the status and treatment of a Guest Patriarch.
One who accepts favors cannot refuse them. Having accepted benefits, Guo Shier had no choice but to agree. With a bitter smile, he reached out to take the identity token and asked, “Are there any rules?”
Patriarch Nan Qiang smiled and said, “There aren’t many rules. Guest Patriarchs at the patriarch level hold great power, so there are… very few rules. They’re all written on the identity token. Take a look, and you’ll know.”
Guo Shier glanced at it and indeed found only a few rules, such as, “Will the family interfere?”
Patriarch Nan Qiang replied with a smile, “No. The family won’t restrict a patriarch’s actions, nor will it dictate what a Guest Patriarch must do. Whatever issue arises can be resolved through discussion. They will never force a Guest Patriarch to do something they’re unwilling to do.”
Guo Shier nodded. “Then there’s no problem.” It was only now that he realized even among Guests, there were different factional groups. Nan You belonged to Patriarch Nan Qiang’s faction, which explained why Patriarch Nan Qiang valued the person he recommended so much. As for Nan Zhiren, he was the patriarch of another faction—no wonder he had mocked Guo Shier.
An ancient family that had endured for tens of thousands of years had many branch families, with numerous descendants across close and distant lines. Such a family could occupy countless continents and secret realms, with tens of thousands of branch families. Yet, there were only a dozen or so Guest Patriarchs in the entire Gu Nan family—showing just how rare this position was.
Patriarch Nan Qiang then turned to Eagle Demon and asked, “Having successfully advanced to the Virtual Form Altar, Eagle Demon, would you be willing to serve as our family’s Guest Grand Elder?”

Eagle Demon said, “I am a follower of the Twelve. Even if I accept the position of Grand Elder as a guest, I won’t take on any missions.”
Ancestor Nan Qin smiled and said, “Having a certain identity makes it easier to move around within the family.”
Eagle Demon nodded. “As long as the Twelve agree, I have no problem.”
Guo Shier nodded and said, “Take it. We’ll be staying in the Eight Paths Vast Heaven for a while anyway.” He also wanted to search for the four ancient families, preferably the Ancient Miluo family. Now that he had advanced to the Solid Form Altar, he could be a bit more formidable and show off his strength in front of Ban Xilong. He estimated that Ban Xilong had at most reached the first level of the Solid Form Altar, so his strength should be inferior to his own.
Eagle Demon said, “Alright. Give me the identity token for Grand Elder as a guest.” He placed the previous token for an elder as a guest in front of him. Ancestor Nan Qiang smiled slightly, took the old token, and replaced it with a new one for Grand Elder as a guest. Eagle Demon thought to himself, “Well, they were prepared for this.” Without saying much, he put away the token. Having an identity did indeed make things much easier when operating here.
Luo Zhan still used the same old token; he never cared much about such things. He knew that before long, Guo Shier would take him and Eagle Demon away from here. As for the Ancient Nan family, it was just a temporary stopover—this place wasn’t their home.
Nan Jiao was very well-behaved this time. She leaned against the Snow Wolf King, constantly scratching its fur with her little hand. The Snow Wolf King let out soft whines, looking very comfortable.
Ancestor Nan Qin said with a smile, “Well, congratulations, Ancestor Nan Qiang…” She and Ancestor Nan Qiang belonged to two different branch families, but the two families had a good relationship and were part of an internal alliance. Among the tens of thousands of branches of the Ancient Nan family, there weren’t many with master-level experts—perhaps only a hundred or so. Once these two families allied, their strength would surpass that of most other families.
Guo Shier had previously met Nan Ming and Nan Zhichun, who were also top figures in their respective families. Some families didn’t even have experts at the Virtual Form Altar level. Of course, as an ancient family that had existed for tens of thousands of years, the family headquarters still possessed some hidden ultimate powers, including master-level experts.
Ancestor Nan Qiang and Ancestor Nan Qin took Nan Jiao and left.
After seeing them off, Guo Shier returned to his room and asked Eagle Demon to guard the door. He eagerly activated the altar and asked, “Elder Shuai, what good things did you get?” He was actually a money lover, just like Elder Shuai.

The advantage this time is that the other party brought it to them willingly. Guo Shier received it happily without any burden, and it was immediately added to the altar for the old man in charge to count.

The old man in charge showed up, looking extremely pleased. The list he provided contained various rare items, many of which were precious. While these were of little use to the ancient clans nowadays, ten thousand years ago they were highly sought-after treasures. Only the ancient clans had such resources; ordinary clans had never even seen them, let alone tried to collect them.

Guo Shier asked, “How many natural runes did we get?” This was what he cared most about. Natural runes could be used to construct altars and advance them—they were the core. However, using natural runes to build altars was an ancient method, and few people today possessed this knowledge. So even if professionals obtained natural runes, they wouldn’t use them for altars but rather for refining sacred treasures.

According to the old man in charge, that would be a waste of such valuable items. A few professionals who could use ancient methods to build altars with natural runes often didn’t have the correct techniques either.

The old man said proudly, “Not many—just three natural runes, haha…”

Guo Shier exclaimed, “Damn it, three! After all these years of effort, we only found three natural runes, and you extorted three from them at once. Isn’t that too much? Tell me, which three are they?” He was extremely curious. The Gunan clan was really generous.

The old man explained, “It’s nothing much. Although natural runes are rare, there are still quite a few in the Eight Paths Heaven. They have settlements and strongholds here, and over thousands of years, they must have accumulated quite a number. I guess… in the Gunan clan, these natural runes aren’t considered extremely important, otherwise they wouldn’t have given them to you so easily.”

Guo Shier thought it made sense. He had found three natural runes after arriving in the Eight Paths Heaven, so it was unreasonable for the Gunan clan, who had been here for so long, not to have collected any. He asked, “But these can be used to build altars. Don’t they need them?”

The old man replied, “Their method of building altars is different from ours. Using natural runes to construct altars is an ancient method, and maybe not many people know it now. Their altars aren’t built with natural runes—this is something I can tell.”

Guo Shier asked, “Is my altar built using the ancient method?” He didn’t know much about others’ altars because he had advanced too quickly and still lacked a lot of knowledge.

The handsome old man nodded and said, “You have the Ancient Ink Lotus, which contains natural runes. However, these natural runes in the Ancient Ink Lotus cannot be extracted. If forced to do so, the lotus will completely collapse. The Ancient Ink Lotus is somewhat similar to an altar built using ancient methods. Based on this, your altar can only be constructed using ancient methods; if ordinary methods are used, its power will be far inferior.”

“As you know, the best altars are the Heavenly Altar, the Earthly Altar, and the Soul Altar. If natural runes are used properly, they can confer some of the attributes of the Heavenly Altar. To actually construct a Heavenly Altar is extremely difficult. By using natural runes to build an altar, we can still achieve power close to that of a Heavenly Altar… I wonder if anyone still knows how to do this nowadays.”

Guo Shier asked, “If I wanted to build a Heavenly Altar, how many natural runes would be needed?”

The handsome old man smiled and said, “Don’t be greedy. To build a Heavenly Altar, you need natural runes of at least five different attributes—this is simply too difficult.”

Guo Shier replied, “Just five natural runes? That shouldn’t be that hard, right?”

The old man laughed and scolded, “Nonsense! It’s five attributes, not five types! One attribute of natural runes, for example, the metal attribute, includes hundreds of different natural metal runes… You’ve only collected one natural metal rune so far. If you don’t understand, don’t talk nonsense and embarrass yourself!”

Guo Shier exclaimed, “Wow! Where could I get that many natural runes? Just the metal attribute alone requires hundreds, and adding those from other attributes means we’d need five or six hundred natural runes!”

The old man calmly said, “That’s not enough. We also need natural runes from auxiliary attributes… Without a thousand natural runes, don’t even think about it. In our time, there were methods for constructing and refining Heavenly Altars, but no one succeeded. Now… I guess it’s lost to history.”

Guo Shier shook his head. “That’s insane—thousands of natural runes… Such a rip-off. I’ve only found three. By the way, what are the three natural runes I extorted?”

The old man replied, “One is a Xin rune, one is a Wood rune, and one is aresilient rune from the auxiliary category. Unfortunately, I can’t specify which type of natural rune we need; we have to accept whatever they give us. Among these three, the Wood rune is the most useful. It was likely extracted from an ancient tree—a really good natural rune that can be used to construct the third layer of the altar.”

“The Xin rune can be used to strengthen the core of the first layer of the altar. Your original altar had its first layer built with metal runes, so it would be perfect to supplement it with Xin runes. Theresilient rune is also good—it can be used not only for refining sacred treasures but also in the altar itself.”

Guo Shier said, “It seems we still need to keep looking for natural runes.”