The Great Emperor's Puppet Cheated My Little Cousin

Jiang Ruoxu felt like he was quite the seasoned veteran by now, but when it came to cunning schemes... he was still a greenhorn compared to Jiang Che!

"Bro, I get it now! Don’t worry... my acting skills won’t let you down! No one understands secret realms better than me!"

Having figured everything out, Jiang Ruoxu grinned and rubbed his hands together.

Jiang Che merely smiled faintly, not saying another word.

[Ding! Host has tricked Jiang Ruoxu, earning 10 million points.]

......

Jiang Ruoxu stepped into the secret realm artificially created by Jiang Che.

"What the... holy crap!!! This is insane..."

The young man was stunned!

The surroundings were filled with ancient yet magnificent architecture, especially the colossal puppet statue at the center of the realm. Just its upper half alone was massive enough to blot out the sky, and the oppressive aura it emitted was downright terrifying.

Was this really an illusion and not the real deal?

But he didn’t bother overthinking it. Jiang Che had said it was fake... so it had to be fake. After all, he knew Jiang Che’s capabilities well enough—creating such an illusion with an immortal artifact didn’t seem too difficult.

......

Jiang Ruoxu started his livestream.

The moment he went live, tens of billions of viewers flooded in.

To put it in perspective, the entire Blue Star had a population of just over seven billion, yet Jiang Ruoxu’s livestream alone had already attracted tens of billions of viewers.

The Nine Heavens was simply too vast, with millions of provinces. Even if each province had only a billion people, the total population would still be in the quadrillions—and that was a conservative estimate, given that a single province in the Nine Heavens was far larger than Blue Star.

In the Nine Heavens, it was common for Great Emperors to livestream their teachings, and the gifts they received from a single session could buy an entire sacred land.

"He’s live! He’s live!"

"Jiang kid actually dares to go live? Let’s see what trash the mortal world has to offer! Aside from your dual-immortal-body brother, there’s probably nothing else worth mentioning in that backwater realm!"

"A Quasi-Emperor-level puppet? Kid, you’re full of it. Even in the Nine Heavens, Quasi-Emperor puppets are incredibly rare, auctioned for saint-grade spirit stones at minimum—and even then, they’re practically impossible to find!"

Jiang Ruoxu received the classic protagonist treatment—immediately bombarded with mockery.

With a sweep of his divine sense, Jiang Ruoxu skimmed through the barrage of comments. Millions of messages flew by every minute, something only a cultivator’s mental processing speed could handle.

"Tch, Saint Chen Bo, quit yapping. It’s not even dawn yet... your turn hasn’t come."

"Taoist Li Huan, were you born in Dunhuang or something? So full of hot air. Why don’t you go bark at my brother instead? With his Void Immortal Body, he’s probably already reached the Nirvana Realm—one slap from him would shatter your kidney stones, believe it or not!"

[Ding! Host has pulled off a shamelessly brilliant flex, earning 3 million flex points.]

The little cousin’s three million translated to thirty million points for Jiang Che.

In his quest to flex, Jiang Ruoxu had completely abandoned ethics and morals. Daily trash-talking had become one of his primary flexing tactics.

"Alright, alright, you all said I’d never find a secret realm, right? Then open your damn eyes and see... where I am right now!"

With that, he swung the camera around, revealing the vast and magnificent secret realm in all its glory.

Shock!!!

The illusory realm conjured by Jiang Che’s system looked unbelievably real. Even a Great Emperor wouldn’t be able to see through it with the naked eye.

Of course, the most eye-catching feature was the puppet at the center, radiant like the sun. Though only its upper half was visible, its sheer presence was enough to send chills down everyone’s spines.

"This... this can’t be real!"

"A real secret realm? That puppet at the center is so enormous... just one glance is enough to shake me to my core. What level is that thing?"

"I’m an inner disciple of the Profound Mechanism Immortal Sect. Our sect ranks among the top three in the Nine Heavens for puppet arts. Generally, the larger the puppet, the stronger its cultivation..."

"Typically, a Martial God-level puppet stands thirty feet tall, a Nirvana Realm puppet 240 feet, a Creation Realm puppet 3,000 feet, and a legendary Quasi-Emperor puppet can reach 30,000 feet. But that thing... it looks way bigger than 30,000 feet!"

"Way bigger? It’s gotta be close to 100,000 feet—taller than the highest peak in Tiancang Province! Isn’t that an Emperor-level puppet?"

"Impossible. A Great Emperor requires the manifestation of Dao patterns. Even an immortal couldn’t craft an Emperor-level puppet."

Jiang Ruoxu couldn’t suppress his smirk. When it came to flexing... his brother was in a league of his own.

With just a casual move, Jiang Che had set him up for an absolute windfall!

Using an immortal artifact to create an illusion and farming flex points via livestream—even with ten brains, Jiang Ruoxu would never have thought of something like this.

Ahem... anyone still doubting me? From what I know... this secret realm is the actual burial ground of an ancient Great Emperor who mastered puppetry. Who knows... if I clear this trial, I might just walk away with a Quasi-Emperor Tenth Heaven super puppet!"

Jiang Ruoxu kept up the act, feigning excitement as if he truly stood to gain an ultimate puppet.

"Holy crap!!! Host, greetings! I’m an outer elder of the Profound Mechanism Immortal Sect. If you find any secret techniques related to our sect in there, could you share a copy with us? We’ll pay—we won’t shortchange you!"

"Quasi-Emperor Tenth Heaven? With a puppet like that guarding the mortal world, unless the spiritual energy there fully recovers and Great Emperors descend, who would dare lay a finger on it?"

"Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Who knows if this kid even has the luck to pull it off?"

After the reveal of the super puppet, the number of viewers in Jiang Ruoxu’s livestream skyrocketed by several dozen times!

[Ding! Host has pulled off a mysteriously profound flex, earning 10 million flex points.]

The flex system still had its limits. Though the audience had multiplied, the flex points didn’t increase proportionally.

Of course, this wasn’t Jiang Che scheming behind his back—Jiang Che’s system worked the same way. He had earned 100 million points.

Without restrictions, with so many people in the Nine Heavens, if a million viewers could earn a host 100,000 flex points, then a trillion viewers would net 100 billion points. And Jiang Che’s side would multiply that by ten?

That would be outright broken!

They’d buy out the entire system!

...

After a brief moment of exhilaration, Jiang Ruoxu’s expression gradually calmed.

"Next, I’ll take you all through this secret realm. And to those who doubted me... I’m going to smack each and every one of you in the face!"

Right then, the first trial of the secret realm activated!

Over a dozen puppet figures, each over fifty feet tall, charged forth—all at the Half-Step Martial God level.

Jiang Ruoxu, however, was only at the mid-stage Divine Connection Realm. Under normal circumstances, facing these puppets would’ve been a struggle.

But... Jiang Ruoxu smirked!

He knew full well—these puppets were nothing but illusions conjured by Jiang Che. They couldn’t lay a finger on him!

So he calmly kept his hands in his pockets, waiting for the puppet to attack until the last moment before dodging and delivering a one-hit kill—planning to pull off an epic flex.

However—

"BAM!!!"

The lead puppet landed a solid punch right on his face, sending him flying hundreds of meters like a ragged sandbag.

[Ding! Host attempted a weak flex and earned 250 points in Flex Value.]

[Ding! Host successfully scammed Jiang Ruoxu, rewarded with 5 million points.]