Chapter 9: The Gu Mi Family (Part 2)

Guo Shier calculated that there were at least several thousand talisman bags here. He said, “Elder Shuai, you go and collect them.”
The altar detached from Guo Shier’s head and flew along the shelves, with the talisman bags falling into the altar one by one. As the altar swiftly moved along the shelves, in just a moment, the entire warehouse was cleared—nothing remained but the empty shelves.
The materials here were diverse, of all kinds. Elder Shuai said, “I need to sort them out and organize them properly; otherwise, it’s too chaotic.”
Guo Shier walked around the warehouse and found no other secret rooms or such, so he left satisfied. He said, “Elder Shuai, don’t rush to clean up yet. Let Gu Xi Bi keep searching. Hehe, I want to take over all the warehouses in this city.”
Elder Shuai replied, “Wait a moment; it’ll be done soon!”
After a while, Elder Shuai said, “Sigh, kid. I thought we’d make a fortune, but… it’s not what I hoped for!”
Guo Shier asked, “What happened?”
Elder Shuai said with a wry smile, “They’re all low-grade materials. They need to be refined into high-quality items. Although there’s a large quantity, not much will be left after refinement. It’s really disappointing!”
Guo Shier was speechless. After a long pause, he said, “Well… Elder Shuai, since we took them by force, don’t complain about their quality. We got them for free, right?”
Elder Shuai retorted, “Even if we took them by force, can’t I complain a bit?”
Seeing that Elder Shuai was becoming more and more talkative, Guo Shier ignored him, left the cottage, flew into the air, enlarged the altar, and climbed onto it. He said, “Elder Shuai, keep using Gu Xi Bi to search!” Now full of confidence, he planned to empty all the warehouses in the city.
They found a few more small warehouses, but none satisfied Guo Shier and Elder Shuai. The contents in those warehouses were either very ordinary or had been greatly reduced, likely stolen by someone.
Half a day later, everyone gathered again. Luo Jie and the others didn’t have Gu Xi Bi to use, so aside from capturing people for questioning, they had no other options. As a result, they returned empty-handed. Only Eagle Demon and Luo Zhan were more thorough; they raided several large businesses and found plenty of good materials, along with large amounts of food and various supplies.
Nan You returned smiling and said, “I did find something good.”
Guo Shier asked, “What did you find?”
Nan You replied, “Eagle and Old Luo raided a few large businesses. Hehe, but I got a talisman from the shopkeeper.”

Luo Jie asked, “What kind of talisman? Is it special?” A talisman that could interest a altar-level expert must be quite unusual. He added, “Could it be an ancient talisman? Even if it is, it’s not much… With your strength, such a talisman might not be useful.”
Nan You shook his head. “I’m not interested in ancient talismans. This is a… trading talisman, hehe.” He smiled proudly.
Luo Jie said, “A trading talisman? We’re not in business.”
Guo Shieru, however, realized what it was and exclaimed happily, “Let me see it!”
Nan You threw the talisman to Guo Shieru and said, “I had to strip that shopkeeper to find this talisman.”
Guo Shieru was stunned and asked, “Was that shopkeeper male?”
Nan You replied casually, “Yeah, male… Why?”
Guo Shieru said, “Nothing, I just want to see what this talisman is.” Everyone’s gaze turned to Nan You, with strange smiles on their faces. Nan You grew frustrated; he certainly understood what they meant. He shouted, “Hey! I was just after information!”
Eagle Demon laughed. “Of course. No wonder we heard the shopkeeper’s screams when we went in…”
Guo Shieru examined the jade talisman briefly and said with delight, “There are complete transaction records… Haha, great stuff.”
Luo Jie couldn’t figure it out at first. He asked puzzledly, “What’s so amazing about this? Why are you so happy?”
Guo Shieru replied, “Because it contains the names and coordinates of cities, as well as the continents where transactions took place. Most importantly, it has a route map to the core continent of the Gu Mi family! Although there are no coordinates for the core continent, following this route, we can reach it!”
Luo Jie snatched the jade talisman and pressed it to his forehead. After a moment, he also burst into laughter. “Haha, great! Nan You is smart!”
Nan You snapped, “But someone else still disdains it!”
Luo Jie patted his shoulder and said, “The key is that you stripped the shopkeeper’s clothes… Haha.”
Everyone laughed loudly.
Guo Shieru said, “From the jade talisman, it seems the Gu Mi family controls not many continents. Maybe the records aren’t comprehensive. According to what’s on the talisman, there are seven continents and hundreds of cities. We can’t sweep them all, but we can choose valuable cities and advance step by step, shaking the Gu Mi family and causing them pain!”

Luo Jie said, “Hmm, it’s impossible to enter the Gumi Continent directly. We need a specific teleportation array to get in, and the security is very strict. I think it’ll be hard to slip in. So… we need to find a way to draw out their main forces, use up their top experts first, and then figure out a way to enter the Gumi Continent.”
Guo Shier said, “Keep fighting until they’re in pain!”
Luo Jie examined the jade talisman carefully again and said, “This route… Shier, you decide on it, then distribute the coordinates to everyone. We’ll take down cities one by one!”
Guo Shier agreed, “Okay! Take them down city by city!”
After careful consideration, Guo Shier selected cities with high trade volumes. After sorting them, he found that to reach the Gumi Continent, they needed to pass through three continents. According to his calculations, there were over a dozen cities to choose from. However, once the three continents were determined, there were seven cities they had to go through—two super-large cities and five large cities. All seven of these cities were important strongholds of the Gumi family.
Fortunately, coordinates for all three continents were available. Guo Shier said, “Let me try to see if these coordinates for the three continents work.” He entered the coordinates into the Grand Cross-Continent Talisman, then added some other coordinates as well. Soon, the talisman automatically sorted the coordinates and began to glow.
Guo Shier rejoiced, “No problem. The coordinates work, and we can enter the cities directly. Haha!”
Luo Jie smiled, “Great. We can appear right inside the cities. Hehe, we won’t even need to break through any defenses. The defense talismans of large cities are really tough to deal with.”
Nan You reminded them, “Cities of this scale are likely guarded by altar-level experts.”
Qi Nan Shan laughed, “That’s even better. What we need most right now are their altar-level experts. Hmm, I’m almost ready to advance too…”
Guo Shier and the others felt a chill in their hearts. The idea of advancing just by killing people was truly terrifying.
Luo Jie said, “I hope the Gumi family has experts at the sixth or seventh level of the altar.”
Nan You shook his head slightly. He thought Guo Shier’s master was a complete freak. Experts at the sixth or seventh level of the altar were considered precious treasures in their ancient family—pillars holding the family together. They would never step in for ordinary matters, unless the family was facing extinction. He believed the Gumi family couldn’t have such experts.
Luo Jie said, “Shier, let’s head to the next stop. Which city is it?”

Guo Shier said, “Midun City is a super-large city with a population of over 17 million. There are seven cities around it, making it an important transit hub on the continent. There are large teleportation arrays here.”
Qi Nanshan rubbed his hands together excitedly, “Great! I like it. The bigger, the better. The more professionals, the better. Damn, we can finally get revenge for the North Talisman Sect this time…”
Guo Shier said, “I don’t know which continent the people from the North Talisman Sect were taken to. Well, let’s not worry about that for now. After eliminating the high-ranking members of the Gu Mi family, we’ll look for any surviving professionals.”
Luo Jie agreed, “Kill first, save later!”
Nan You felt that this group was like bandits and robbers, speaking with a murderous intent. But he liked this feeling, especially robbery—it was the best way to quickly accumulate wealth. On the territory of the Gu Nan family, he rarely had such thoughts. Only in the wild, when there was a suitable opportunity, would he rob other professionals, but he had never done it as openly as Guo Shier and the others.
Guo Shier said, “Let’s go now. We don’t need to wait for their reinforcements to arrive…” Originally, they wanted to lure and kill some of the arriving reinforcements, but now that they had a new target, there was no need to wait anymore.
Opening the talisman gate, Guo Shier and the others entered one after another.
…
Midun City.
It was a super-large city with a population of over 17 million, covering nearly 1,000 square kilometers. It was an important stronghold for the Gu Mi family, a key city for its main branch, and a transit hub between the four continents. There were nearly a million professionals here, making it one of the main cities for the Gu Mi family’s professionals to operate in.
The city was bustling with commerce and crowds. On the well-connected bluestone roads, people moved about in crowds. There were various street vendors, as well as large shops that occupied entire streets. All kinds of flying cars and chase cars took off and circled in the air, while groups of professional patrolers passed by from time to time, searching for and arresting anyone who violated the rules.
This city was a giant, with buildings stretching as far as the eye could see.
In the center of Midun City was a huge square, next to which was the city’s most famous landmark—the large teleportation array. There were eighteen giant talisman pillars, each as thick as a tree trunk and over 100 meters tall. They were the tallest talisman pillars in Midun City, capable of transporting not only people but also flying cars and chase cars. It was called a transit hub between the four continents precisely because of this teleportation array.
The square covered about 2 square kilometers. Half of its area was used as a parking lot, filled with various flying cars and chase cars, most of which were luxury models.

As for the various large vehicles pulled by tamed beasts, there were countless of them—caravans of horses and oxen carrying heavy loads, parading through the streets. Although this world had token bags and token spaces, ordinary people couldn’t possess them, so daily necessities had to be transported by various tamed beasts.

It was early in the morning when a flashing green light suddenly appeared by the square, immediately attracting many people’s attention.

“What’s that?”

A vendor stared wide-eyed at the flashing light. Passersby also stopped in their tracks, stretching their necks to take a look. Soon, a large crowd gathered around.

At that moment, a group of professional patrol members came over. They immediately drove the crowd away, shouting, “Move aside! Don’t gather around… Get lost!” Eventually, one of the professionals grew impatient and swung his stick, striking them harshly, causing the crowd to scatter instantly.

After the green light faded, a token gate appeared clearly.

A young man dressed in light green robes and with a handsome face stepped out of it. Then another followed, and in total, six people emerged from the gate.

The members of the patrol team were all professionals and naturally recognized it as a token gate. But they didn’t dare be rude, knowing that those who could use token gates must be powerful. Especially these six people, who exuded an air of dignity and wore extraordinary clothing—clearly not ordinary folks.

The leader of the patrol team was a grand martial artist. He stepped forward and bowed, saying, “Elders, may I ask where you come from?”

Guo Shier pointed at his own nose and said, “Are you talking to me?”

The patrol leader replied respectfully, “Yes, elder.”

Guo Shier smiled mockingly, “How dare you ask where I come from? What’s your job?” He gave an aggressive look.

The patrol leader’s heart sank; he knew things weren’t going well. But since this guy was experienced, he still smiled and said, “Elder, this is your first time in Midtown City, right? Hehe, I can take you to inns and restaurants, and also introduce you to the local specialties of Midtown City.”

Guo Shier was impressed—this guy really knew how to handle things. It wouldn’t be easy even for him to stir up trouble. With a quick thought, he came up with an idea and said, “Okay, is it free?”

The patrol leader became even more cautious but smiled and said, “Of course it’s free. You’re a distinguished guest.”

Guo Shier laughed and said, “Good, lead the way then.”