Chapter 42: Your Majesty, the Eldest Young Master...

A Tier-1 skill scroll sold for one hundred thousand on the trading platform.

Gu Chen had never considered buying skill scrolls before. After all, their randomness was quite high, making it easy to end up with low-quality or duplicate skills.

Moreover, it was typically rare and hidden classes that lacked high-tier skill books and thus needed skill scrolls.

The Summoner was merely a standard class, so using a skill scroll offered a terribly low cost-performance ratio.

However, since he had a free one right in front of him, it would be foolish not to use it.

He channeled his mental energy. As the scroll was activated, a brilliant burst of light bloomed before Gu Chen's eyes.

Immediately afterward, he felt a peculiar energy transform into gentle warmth that rapidly surged into his body.

[You have acquired a new skill: Displacement Exchange [Excellent]]

[Displacement Exchange: The Summoner can exchange positions with a summoned entity, or swap the positions of two summoned entities.]

A mobility skill.

Summoned entities included not just summoned beasts, but also vampire descendants. With this, the tactical versatility of this skill was immensely enhanced.

The next time an assassin closed in for a melee attack, he could instantly swap positions with a vampire descendant.

Imagine an assassin exhausting all their effort to reach Gu Chen's side, only to watch his figure transform into a vampire descendant the very next second.

And then—

Boom!

Self-destruct!

The assassin would undoubtedly be bewildered, their mind ringing with absolute shock!

A smile appeared on Gu Chen's face, and he began to anticipate the next enemy foolish enough to attempt assassinating him.

Ignoring the battle scars covering the ground, he recalled the Nightmare Overlord and the Skeleton Golem back into his summon dimension, took out a map to survey his surroundings, and continued deeper into the wilderness.

...

"The trail left by Wang Chongshan ends here."

Shortly after, a team of guards from the Li family pursued them to this spot.

"There are footprints here leading forward. It looks like they fled deeper into the wilderness!"

"Depeer into the wilderness? Could Gu Chen be heading into the Abyss?"

"What should we do then? Continue the pursuit?"

"Continue the pursuit? The depths of the wilderness have already been invaded by the Abyss, teeming with countless alien races and extreme perils. It's a place where a nine-out-of-ten death rate is no exaggeration. Which of you wants to go?"

Hearing this, everyone shook their heads.

Ordinary guards made only a few thousand per month—risk their lives for that pittance?

Are they out of their minds?

"The family head gave strict orders to bring Gu Chen back. What do we do now?"

"Since it's come to this, let's send someone back to Lincheng to report to the family head. Tell him Gu Chen has fled deep into the wilderness, and Wang Chongshan is leading a full-out pursuit. We will remain on the outer perimeter to provide support."

"Right, let's do that."

The group conferred for a moment, selected two men to hurry back to Lincheng, while the rest stood guard at the outer edge of the wilderness, closely monitoring the surrounding movements.

Twenty minutes later, Lincheng, the Li Family Estate.

Li Xiao received the news that Gu Chen had escaped Lincheng and entered the depths of the wilderness.

"Useless trash! A bunch of useless trash! A 10th-tier class holder who just underwent class advancement actually managed to escape Lincheng right under the Li family's noses and flee deep into the wilderness? What on earth are you all good for?"

Surging with anger, Li Xiao wore an expression of extreme fury.

The guards and servants standing below wore faces full of shame, lowering their heads deeply without daring to speak.

"A lowly commoner dares to kill my son. This is simply too audacious!"

"All members of the Li family, mobilize! I don't care what method you use, I want him alive or dead, but you must capture that brat and bring him back to me!"

"Also, issue a territory-wide bounty! Whoever can bring me Gu Chen's head, regardless of who they are, will be granted the right to freely select a five-star Epic set from the Duobao Pavilion!"

Li Xiao gnashed his teeth, forcing the words out one by one, his tone filled with intense hatred.

At that moment, everyone realized that Gu Chen was undoubtedly doomed.

It was bad enough that the Lincheng Li family was mobilizing in full force, but issuing a territory-wide bounty meant that even a mosquito flying into the depths of the wilderness would likely be hunted down.

After all, that was a five-star Epic set!

Worth hundreds of millions!

With a stake like this, the news would undoubtedly cause an uproar not just in Lincheng, but across the entire Northern Territory.

Sure enough, the moment this astronomical bounty was issued, it sparked a blazing topic of discussion across the seven cities of the Northern Territory in mere minutes.

The vast majority of class holders, even if they spent their entire lives running dungeons and entering the Abyss, could never gather a complete five-star Epic set.

Yet now, simply by capturing a 10th-tier class holder, one could obtain a supreme treasure worth hundreds of millions.

Such an opportunity was virtually once-in-a-lifetime.

Instantly, a massive number of class holders headed toward the Lincheng wilderness, attempting to track down Gu Chen's whereabouts in the deep wild.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Gubei City.

Ever since Gu Chen severed ties with the Gu family and departed in anger, the Gu family estate had plunged into an unprecedented silence.

Especially Gu Qingfeng.

Following the farce of that day, Gu Qingfeng had grown somewhat distant toward his concubine, Qin Yun, unwilling to speak with her.

He locked himself inside his study, dismissing all servants, ignoring military affairs, refusing food and drink, and cutting off all contact with the outside world.

It had now been two full days and nights.

He no longer possessed his former extraordinary aura; his entire being exuded depression and a sense of loss.

Recalling all the accusations Gu Chen had leveled against him that day, his mind drifted into a trance.

As a dignified Northern Territory War King, deeply revered by the empire's subjects and hailed as a great hero by the world, he had actually driven his own biological son to the point of severing ties.

This filled him with a sense of defeat he had never experienced before.

Gu Chen was the legitimate eldest son of the Gu family. He had only been so stern because he wanted his son to endure more trials—was that wrong?

"Your... Your Majesty?"

The voice of the steward, Gu He, sounded from outside the door.

"Didn't I say to dismiss all trivial matters and not to disturb me!"

Gu Qingfeng furrowed his brow, a strong wave of anger instantly welling up on his face. Right now, he did not want to deal with anything at all.

"No, Your Majesty, I have an urgent report. The Young Master, he—"

"What about him?"

Before the sentence was finished, Gu Qingfeng abruptly strode out of the room, his tiger-like eyes trembling slightly.

Could it be that Gu Chen had come home?

Did he realize his mistake and return to apologize?

Gu Qingfeng's expression instantly shifted from gloomy to bright. After all, Gu Chen was his biological son; if he was willing to admit his fault, how could he possibly hold onto harsh words spoken in anger?

Although Gu Chen had a rebellious personality, lacked drive, and couldn't even become a class holder...

As long as his son was willing to come back, what harm was there in him, as a father, supporting him for the rest of his life?

Seeing Gu Qingfeng so eager, Gu He's heart trembled as he hurriedly spoke:

"Your Majesty, we just received news from Lincheng. The Young Master killed the heir of the Lincheng Li family, then fled Lincheng and entered the wilderness. His whereabouts remain unknown."