System Upgrade?
Lu Ze's previously idle brain suddenly sprang to life.
"What did you just say?"
Lu Ze abruptly turned to look at Shen Yan.
"Huh? I need an illusionary realm to comprehend the Sword Dao..."
"Not that, the line before."
"???"
Shen Yan was baffled by Lu Ze's question. After thinking for a moment, he hesitantly replied,
"I'm not skilled in the Sword Dao, but I have a natural affinity for hammer-type weapons?"
"Yes, that's the one."
Lu Ze snapped his fingers, then dropped his usual playful demeanor and looked at Shen Yan seriously.
"Brother Shen, I don't think you and the hammer are truly in harmony yet."
Shen Yan was taken aback. "That can't be, right? All the elders say..."
"The Sword Dao emphasizes the unity of man and sword. Brother Shen, do you feel... united with it?"
Lu Ze pointed at the massive hammer in Shen Yan's hand.
"This..."
Shen Yan didn't know how to respond.
He had never considered this question before.
"What do you mean, Brother Lu?"
"If Brother Shen's hammer techniques reach the state of unity between man and hammer, I’d be more than willing to design an illusionary realm to temper your Sword Dao."
Lu Ze's expression was utterly sincere.
"Otherwise, if your hammer techniques aren't yet mastered and you switch halfway to the Sword Dao, ending up proficient in neither... I’d feel guilty!"
With that, he even put on a pained expression.
Seeing Lu Ze like this, Shen Yan had no reason to doubt him.
"Brother Lu makes an excellent point!"
He nodded thoughtfully, staring at his hammer in deep contemplation.
"But how can I tell if I’ve reached the state of unity between man and hammer?"
"Simple."
Relieved that Shen Yan believed him, Lu Ze relaxed, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
"I can design a trial illusionary realm to test your unity with the hammer. However..."
Shen Yan grew curious. "However what?"
"However, this illusionary realm might be quite challenging. If it affects Brother Shen’s mental state..."
Lu Ze trailed off, sighing dramatically.
"Oh, that’s all?"
Shen Yan laughed, completely unfazed.
"Don’t worry about that! My Dao heart is unshakable. My master says I’m a born prodigy—no trial, no matter how difficult, can shake my resolve in the slightest."
"Besides..."
"My master once said that if anyone could shake my Dao heart, I should bring them straight to him!"
Lu Ze forced a smile. "Heh, good, good..."
In his mind, he thought:
That person is definitely going to be me.
"So it’s settled? Once I pass the unity trial, you’ll design the training environment for me?"
Shen Yan’s eyes shone with hope.
Lu Ze nodded. "Yes, it’s a promise."
......
Returning to his guest quarters, Lu Ze immediately got to work crafting the illusionary realm.
When the system issued the "shake the Dao heart" mission, he had recalled a "classic" game from his past life—
Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy.
But Lu Ze preferred its other name: Digging for Ascension.
You like hammers, huh?
Want to test your unity with the hammer?
Perfect fit.
Compared to games like I Wanna or It Takes Two, Digging for Ascension stood out for its utterly inhuman control scheme.
Whether in the games of his past life or the illusionary realms of this world, players generally didn’t reject the feel of the controls too much—because they aligned with their expectations and habits.
Struggling? Practice more. Bad at it? Train harder. Skill comes with time.
But Digging for Ascension was a whole different kind of torment.
Its controls and physics were downright anti-human.
You had to fully immerse yourself in that nonsensical, borderline-unplayable system to make progress.
So, skill didn’t matter here.
At least not until you’d internalized the janky controls.
Even the best players had to suffer through an adjustment period.
Lu Ze refused to believe anyone could remain unshaken by this game.
Even if Shen Yan’s will was truly unbreakable and Digging for Ascension failed to crack him,
Lu Ze had a backup plan.
He could mix in some "souls-like" elements into a sword-training game.
But he suspected that, given Shen Yan’s genius mindset, souls-like challenges would be the least effective at shaking his Dao heart.
Death after death wouldn’t faze him—he’d just revive and grow stronger.
What would get to him was hitting a wall with no clear path forward.
With that in mind, Digging for Ascension was undeniably the best choice.
Lu Ze activated the Illusion Tower and began constructing the virtual space.
First, he replaced the terrain with a cultivation-world aesthetic.
Then he crafted a pot and a hammer.
After a moment’s thought, Lu Ze summoned Zhong Yi’s digitalized soul and tossed it into the pot.
"You—go test it!"
......
The original Digging for Ascension was a 2D game, so Lu Ze couldn’t copy it outright.
The best approach was to have someone test the mechanics firsthand.
Zhong Yi’s digitalized soul became the perfect guinea pig.
Honestly, Zhong Yi was such a reliable senior brother.
Illustrations, testing, modeling—the guy excelled at everything.
Then again, among this batch of powerful cultivators, he’d died the most, leaving behind the strongest digitalized soul.
Extremely useful.
After repeated adjustments and tests, Lu Ze felt the physics system was finally ready.
Though digitalized souls had no faces,
somehow, Zhong Yi’s movements radiated an aura of utter exhaustion...
Lu Ze climbed into the pot himself to test the controls.
After tweaking a few minor issues, he finalized the design.
The rest was straightforward.
He polished the background, adding some signature scenery from the Tianxuan Sect.
Soon, the illusionary realm was complete.
Lu Ze took out the communication jade slip Shen Yan had given him.
"Brother Shen, the illusionary realm is ready."
"What?? It’s only been three days!"
Shen Yan’s voice from the other end was stunned.
"I did it all for your training, Brother Shen! Shall we meet now?"
Lu Ze’s tone was earnest.
"I’ll come find you right away... Oh, Brother Lu, your illusionary realms always have interesting names. What’s this one called?"
"It’s called..."
"Digging for Ascension."
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
g Yu was preparing for retirement when her organization decided to eliminate her. She transmigrated to a zombie apocalypse world. However, a tiny unexpected situation occurred: She somehow transformed into an adorable little girl?!
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
