Ultimately, Zhou Ming still decided to take a gamble.
To be honest, Zhou Ming did not lack methods to improve his strength.
Moreover, due to the special treatment from the Gu World's Heavenly Dao, Zhou Ming himself was greatly restricted.
Even the best items, when brought into the Gu World, could potentially be twisted into Gu, unless he was willing to leave them in the Main God Space and only use them in story worlds.
Since he currently lacked the strength to resist the Heavenly Dao, Zhou Ming could only try to adapt, making all his enhancements as close as possible to the path of a Gu Master.
"Select, World Tree Leaf!"
A beam of light descended, and a palm-sized, emerald green leaf floated before Zhou Ming.
Zhou Ming spread his hand, and the leaf slowly settled into it.
The beam of light vanished. Zhou Ming ran his finger over the leaf, feeling the immense energy and intense life aura contained within it, a look of surprise on his face.
"If I take it to the Gu World, what kind of Gu will it be refined into?"
"Will it be a Gu that can replenish True Essence, or a healing Gu, like the Resurrection Gu that can bring people back to life?"
The Resurrection Gu is a Rank Four Gu and a one-time consumable Gu. However, its value is much higher than many Rank Five Gu, making it incredibly rare and priceless!
Its healing effect is too powerful!
Even if a Gu Master dies, as long as it hasn't been more than seven hours and their body is intact, this Gu can be used to revive them.
The reason Zhou Ming speculated that a Gu refined from a World Tree Leaf might have similar effects was because he felt an astonishingly rich life aura from the leaf.
Such vast life energy, if guided and used correctly, might truly possess the ability to bring the dead back to life!
"Regardless, speculation is just speculation. Everything will only be confirmed once I return to the Gu World."
Zhou Ming placed the World Tree Leaf into a Flower Bud Gu, then retrieved an item from another Flower Bud Gu.
It was a thumb-sized heavenly demon stone, as black as ink, deep and dark.
As soon as it was taken out, the heavenly demon stone automatically absorbed the surrounding light like a black hole, seemingly dimming the brightness of the surroundings by a few degrees.
Zhou Ming waited for a while, receiving no prompts from the Main God, confirming that it wasn't something new the Main God hadn't seen before.
He then meticulously searched through the Main God's exchange list but couldn't find a corresponding item.
"heavenly demon stone... this task isn't easy to handle."
Zhou Ming rubbed his chin, ultimately deciding to temporarily put it aside.
His strength was still too low; a mere wisp of thought from a tiny stone had almost made him succumb. If he forced further exploration, Zhou Ming feared he wouldn't even know how he died.
Moreover, he didn't plan to bring the heavenly demon stone back to the Gu World. Although he really wanted to see what would happen if it collided with the Gu World's Heavenly Dao, considering it might also be linked to the hidden mission "Sky Demon," Zhou Ming ultimately decided to seal it in the Main God Space for future research.
After settling the heavenly demon stone, Zhou Ming opened the exchange list again.
"Exchange, deceiver's mask!"
A beam of light descended again, and a thin, cicada-wing-like silver-white mask floated down.
[Exchange successful, 3000 reward points consumed.]
deceiver's mask: Disguises appearance, voice, conceals, and disguises aura.
Simple description, extreme effect.
Zhou Ming had his eye on this item even before the last mission, but at the time, there was no urgent need for it, so Zhou Ming put his reward points into areas that needed strengthening more.
Zhou Ming's current strength was far from enough to roam the Gu World alone. Developing quietly under the stable living conditions provided by his Family was the best choice.
Now that he had completed the second story world, with a full month's interval before the next, Zhou Ming had to consider the issue of concealing his cultivation.
Gently placing the soft, ethereal silver-white mask over his face, Zhou Ming's mind stirred.
The silver-white mask instantly merged into his skin, leaving no trace of its existence.
Then, Zhou Ming's face began to change. In a few seconds, he transformed from a fair-skinned, sunny young man into a square-faced, honest middle-aged man.
"The effect is good."
Comparing his face in the mirror, Zhou Ming nodded slightly, and his voice also changed to the slightly rough, hoarse voice of a middle-aged man.
"Unfortunately, its use is limited."
He raised his hands; his fair, elastic skin and slender fingers. Those young hands were so out of place with that middle-aged face.
"Let's try another function," Zhou Ming thought. The aura naturally emanating from his body quickly diminished. Soon, the aura he displayed was no different from that of a Two-turn Peak Gu Master.
Zhou Ming tried several more times, his aura fluctuating, sometimes that of a Two-Turn Gu Master, sometimes a common person, and sometimes even as low as a small animal by the roadside, inconspicuous and easily overlooked.
"It's very effective, but I wonder if I can get the Gu I want after bringing it into the Gu World."
After playing with it for a while, Zhou Ming took off the deceiver's mask, put it into a Flower Bud Gu, and continued to tally his gains from the previous mission world.
The two Flower Bud Gu, which were originally packed full before entering the previous mission world, were now mostly empty.
The Gu's food was mostly eaten, and a large amount of supplies, especially weapons and ammunition, had been consumed.
Although the consumption was high, the gains were also very rich.
The main part was naturally over 20,000 reward points, in addition to the two sets of special armor and weapons from Nohara Momonosuke and Hirakawa Masamasa.
These were pieces of equipment capable of withstanding the slashes of an edelman alloy blade, possessing clear extraordinary power. Even if Zhou Ming himself couldn't use them, he could take them to the public space to sell.
Besides that, there were no more valuable items.
Zhou Ming decided to buy another batch of weapons and ammunition. In the early stages, Reincarnators' own strength isn't strong, and the story worlds they experience are relatively simple, allowing the power of modern weapons to be fully displayed.
After counting the supplies on him, Zhou Ming already had a plan in mind.
"Next, it's back to the good old days of being a middleman."
Collapsing onto the large, soft bed, Zhou Ming fell into a deep sleep, filled with anticipation for a better tomorrow.
Although the Main God's repairs were fair and thorough, with no damage overlooked, and his physical fitness directly improved to its Peak state after repair.
However, after continuous fierce battles within a single day in the story world, slaughtering hundreds of people, it wasn't just his body that was injured and exhausted, but also his mental will.
Even with Zhou Ming's strong will, he needed appropriate rest to dispel fatigue and restore his spirit.
Time flowed by quickly.
The Main God Space had no distinction between day and night, so Zhou Ming could only rely on an alarm clock to wake him up.
When he finally dragged himself out of bed amidst the alarm clock's persistent calls, it took a great effort to suppress the urge to smash it with a punch.
"Hmm... in real-world time, it should be noon the next day, right?"
He checked the time and converted it to Gu World time. Zhou Ming gradually sobered up, feeling refreshed and invigorated, all fatigue swept away.
"Hmph!" He exhaled a deep breath of stale Qi, Zhou Ming stood up, stretching his body.
"It seems it's time to go back!"
"Main God, exchange for 10 Scarlet Iron Relic Gu!"
The selling price of Scarlet Iron Relic Gu in the Gu World is generally around 8,000 primeval stones, but exchanging one here only costs 400 reward points.
With 4,000 reward points deducted, Zhou Ming had over 17,000 reward points remaining.
"Return," Zhou Ming put all the items he needed to take back on his person, leaving the others in the Main God Space, then chose to return to the Gu World.