Gu Chengming: "...Director, I was only being polite."
"All right." Zhou Qingmu smiled with breezy confidence.
After a brief silence, she brought up something else.
"You've probably already learned the origins of the Zhou Li Tian Ren Zheng Xin Fa you practice."
Gu Chengming nodded. During the karma resonance just now, he had clearly "seen" everything.
"The Zhou Li Tian Ren Zheng Xin Fa was derived from that 'Heavenly Human Heart-Rectifying Method' of the Zhou Guitianli True Monarch."
Zhou Qingmu spoke in a calm, matter-of-fact tone, as if she were recounting something long since settled.
"The cultivation method I've practiced since childhood was based on the True Monarch's legacy, then refined and specialized by the sages of my sect through the generations. In a sense, there's a direct lineage of transmission between me and that True Monarch."
"And the Zhou Li Tian Ren Zheng Xin Fa in your hands—"
Zhou Qingmu looked at Gu Chengming and spoke thoughtfully. "From the perspective of inheritance, if you stretch the definition, you could probably count as half a legitimate successor?"
Gu Chengming felt a little strange about that, but didn't pursue the subject. Instead, he steered the conversation toward something that concerned him more.
"Director, that [Lord of the Longevity Constricting Dao Chessboard] left nothing behind when he died."
"The Law Position wonder vanished, which I can understand. He detonated the corruption by sacrificing his Law Position. But his remains, Storage Bag, and magical artifacts are all gone, as if they evaporated into thin air."
Most importantly, after killing him, Gu Chengming's "Hundred Heavenly Emperor, aid me" multiplier hadn't increased at all.
By rights, a Fifth Realm Cultivator should have raised the multiplier by at least one or so, yet there had been no reaction whatsoever.
Gu Chengming considered his words and left