Ray Tracing

"Survival Extreme? Civilization Simulation? Bed Wars?"

After absorbing the knowledge orbs Lu Ze tossed over—each containing information about various new worlds—the flickering light around the remnant spirit of the Heavenly Dao brightened.

These were rules it had never heard of, let alone imagined.

Take Survival Extreme, for example.

Harsh living conditions were imposed: some worlds were overrun with blood zombies, others had environments corrupted by the lower realms, and some even consisted of nothing but a single block of dirt floating in the sky.

On top of that, there were increasingly difficult challenges—stronger monsters, worsening environments, dwindling time…

Just thinking about it amused the remnant spirit.

It could already picture cultivators, fully aware of the dangers, still throwing themselves into these deadly trials… only to meet miserable ends under the weight of countless hardships.

But what excited it most was Civilization Simulation.

Cultivators would be divided into factions and scattered across different regions to develop their own civilizations.

Once the countdown ended, the barriers isolating them would lift, and the factions would begin attacking and defending against each other.

This would test not only the players' skills but also the unity of their factions.

The thought of the deceit and betrayal born from human nature made the remnant spirit's grin turn even more sinister.

As for the last world, Bed Wars…

It was utterly baffling.

A battle centered around a bed?

Resource accumulation, team combat, offense and defense?

It made no sense.

None at all.

"I can roughly grasp the appeal of the first two worlds… but even combined, they wouldn’t be enough to speed things up tenfold or a hundredfold, would they?"

The remnant spirit bluntly voiced its skepticism.

[Survival Extreme] increased difficulty, and [Civilization Simulation] increased player numbers—both were valid ways to boost the death rate.

But not to the exaggerated extent Lu Ze claimed, certainly not enough to shorten the timeline to within a century.

Lu Ze smiled confidently.

"Don’t worry, the first two are just side attractions… the real highlight is [Bed Wars]."

Truthfully, even without the remnant spirit’s involvement, Lu Ze would have created these wildly popular modpacks from his past life.

The first two were meant to expand the player base and improve retention.

Bed Wars, however, was the ultimate tool for harvesting Demon Path Points.

In short, Bed Wars was a team-based competitive mode where players would die and respawn endlessly during battles.

This type of game would become the ultimate form of Demon Path Point farming once the server was up and running.

Later, if he introduced classic FPS, MOBA, battle royale, or tomb-raiding modes…

He could level up effortlessly.

And the remnant spirit could effortlessly settle its karmic debts.

Of course,

The freedom of Minecraft was nearly limitless.

That meant he could technically port all these modes into Minecraft.

But Lu Ze wasn’t in a hurry.

One step at a time.

For now, Bed Wars alone would more than satisfy the demand for Demon Path Points.

"Hmph, fine. I’ll give you one chance… Within a month, I want to see this ‘century-shortening efficiency’ you’re boasting about."

After running rapid calculations in its mind, the remnant spirit decided to grant a one-month trial period.

"Deal."

Lu Ze narrowed his eyes and nodded with a smile.

"But aside from the server, there’s one more thing that could speed things up further."

"What?"

"Graphics."

Lu Ze looked up, his gaze steady.

"You’ve seen the current illusionary environment. If we improve the visuals, we can attract even more cultivators to participate."

"How?"

The remnant spirit scoffed.

"What, you expect me to boost your cultivation realm for you?"

"If you’re offering, I won’t refuse."

"Piss off."

"Then we’ll have to find another way."

Lu Ze had never seriously expected such generosity. He raised his hand, summoning a primitive wooden block in his palm.

With a slight exertion of divine sense, the block’s texture visibly refined—grain patterns sharpened, and the material quality improved dramatically.

By the end, the wooden block’s high-definition appearance stood out jarringly against the pixelated surroundings.

"Oh? If a single block can look this good, why isn’t the entire illusion like this?"

The remnant spirit was intrigued.

The current illusionary world’s blocks, while better than the original crude textures, were still far from this luxurious version.

"My divine sense is limited. I can’t apply this level of detail to every block."

Lu Ze admitted frankly.

"Pathetic insect."

"…"

Lu Ze rolled his eyes but didn’t take it to heart.

In this thing’s eyes, even the Sect Master of Lingxiao Sect would be dismissed as an "insect."

"If you want to resolve your karmic debts faster, you could provide this texture upgrade for the cultivators."

Lu Ze continued.

"Oh? And why should I bother with such thankless work?"

The remnant spirit retorted.

"First, it’s not thankless—better graphics mean more players… er, cultivators, which means faster death rates."

Lu Ze leisurely raised two fingers.

"Second, if you’re worried about the energy cost, you can have the cultivators supply you with spiritual energy while they play, covering the expenditure."

He’d planned this long ago.

What kind of internet user doesn’t pay for bandwidth?

Perfectly reasonable!

"Hmm…"

The remnant spirit pondered for a moment.

"That… does sound feasible."

"Since you’re open to the idea, I’ve got an upgraded option too."

Lu Ze grinned slyly and channeled his divine sense again.

A beam of light shot from the remnant spirit toward the wooden block in Lu Ze’s hand.

The wood’s surface gained three-dimensional lighting, and even the droplets on the leaves shimmered with crystalline clarity.

"This…"

The remnant spirit was stunned.

"Not done yet."

Lu Ze pushed his divine sense to its limits.

The block transformed into a tree.

The tree became a forest.

Soil spread beneath, rivers snaked through the landscape…

In an instant, a small forest rendered with top-tier textures materialized.

Paired with the masterful lighting effects,

For a moment, the remnant spirit couldn’t even tell that this had once been a pixelated world of blocks!

"What kind of sorcery is this? How is it so profound?"

Even the well-traveled remnant spirit was utterly shocked.

It had witnessed countless illusionary worlds crafted by human cultivators.

None had dared to pass off a blocky, pixelated world as legitimate—until Lu Ze.

But likewise,

No one had ever been able to turn that blocky world into something nearly indistinguishable from reality!

"This is called…"

Lu Ze thought for a moment, then smiled.

"Ray Tracing Art."

Inspired by ray tracing technology from his past life, he’d developed this unique formation.

He’d researched it before, but the energy cost had been too prohibitive to pursue further.

Now that he had the Heavenly Dao Fragment Spirit—this supercomputer—at his disposal, Lu Ze felt it would be a waste not to exploit it.

"Ray Tracing Art... not bad, this is a good one."

The Heavenly Dao Fragment Spirit rarely gave praise, but then it voiced some doubt:

"However, the consumption of this technique..."

Hearing this, Lu Ze widened his eyes in exaggerated disbelief:

"Oh come on, don’t tell me you can’t even handle the technique of an ant?"

"?"

The Heavenly Dao Fragment Spirit paused for a moment before immediately retorting with pride:

"Hmph, the techniques of mere ants are nothing, no matter how many there are!"

Seeing this, Lu Ze couldn’t help but grin:

"Well, you said it yourself..."