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."
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
igrating to the cultivation world for two hundred years, I've managed to lie low and reach the Nascent Soul stage. Only now does my golden finger arrive? ...
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
invincible power, Gu Changge transmigrates into a fantasy world, bound to a sign-in system that grants him cultivation rewards and various peerless treasures daily. While others struggle desperately to break through their cultivation realms, he has long since reached the pinnacle of the Great Dao, becoming a reclusive Emperor whose true strength even he himself cannot fathom. Originally planning to lie low and retire peacefully on Purple Bamboo Peak, the system suddenly issues a new task — take on disciples. With no other choice, Gu Changge casually picks up a few disciples: The eldest disciple, born with a War God Constitution, is thrown a copy of "War God Stratagems" by him, and ends up conquering the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, becoming a peerless War God who sweeps across the cosmos. The second disciple, possessing a Chaos Sword Body, can break all techniques with a single sword, his swordsmanship unmatched throughout history. He points his sword at the heavens: "My master said, the sword and the man stand together. If the sword perishes... my master will give me another one." The third disciple, a reborn Empress who returns to her throne, her elegance and grace overshadowing all beings. And without anyone noticing, his own sect, the Qingxuan Sect, has become the number one sect on the continent. Looking at these unbelievably formidable disciples, Gu Changge, holding the "Primordial Purple Qi" he just signed in for, falls into deep thought: — Wasn't this supposed to be a peaceful retirement? How did I become the ultimate master?!
