Evil Monk's Giant Buddha Hanging a Dog

The world of illusions, the Gathering Skull Continent.

On the plains southeast of the Senluo Valley, the air was thick with the dark purple energy of extreme yin.

Zhong Yi strolled leisurely through the poison zone, a spiritual umbrella floating behind his back.

Since the ranked mode had begun, cultivators had started developing all sorts of strategies to survive and climb the ranks.

Among them, Zhong Yi’s "Poison Soaking" tactic was the most braindead.

Pick Hutao, drop at the edge of the map, and soak in the poison zone.

Losing health?

Hutao could heal.

No one would bother chasing him down in the poison zone anyway.

Even if someone did, he could just pop his ultimate, take a big heal, and sprint in the opposite direction.

Anyone who dared to chase would end up dying in the poison—no one was that desperate.

By the time he made it out of the third poison zone, usually not many players were left alive.

In this battle royale-style game, ranking points carried heavy weight.

So even without much skill, you could still climb steadily.

Despite being mechanically challenged, Zhong Yi had grinded his way up to the Meteorite rank using this strategy.

At this point in time, the highest rank in solo queue was only Eclipse Moon.

Ever the generous soul, Zhong Yi shared his strategy on the forums, and soon, hordes of cultivators began copying him.

Before long, the poison zone was flooded with Hutaos…

Like the one to Zhong Yi’s left right now, watching him from a distance.

"Fellow cultivator, I wonder how bloodthirsty you are…"

Zhong Yi muttered to himself before sending out an emote.

Behind him, a translucent image of Hutao appeared, making a playful, innocent face.

Soon, the other Hutao mirrored the same emote in response.

This was an unspoken signal among Hutaos—a truce, an agreement to coexist peacefully and soak together.

"Good, good… a friendly Hutao, a good peach…"

Zhong Yi sighed in relief.

But as his strategy spread, more and more Hutaos flooded the poison zone, and some began scheming.

Generally, Hutaos who adopted this playstyle weren’t the best at melee combat.

So some mid-tier cultivators started picking Hutao just to hunt down soaking Hutaos like Zhong Yi, farming easy kills for extra points.

Before long, distrust spread among the Hutaos.

Outside the poison zone, it was a battle royale. Inside, it was a game of Werewolf.

Zhong Yi couldn’t help but lament how the moral standards of cultivators in the illusion realm were becoming increasingly unpredictable…

But before he could finish his lament—

Whoosh!

An arrow struck him square in the chest.

The opposing Hutao was wielding a purple bow, and Zhong Yi’s health bar plummeted.

"Damn it!! Another cannibal peach!!"

Zhong Yi cursed under his breath, frantically activating his ultimate.

The enemy Hutao kept spamming emotes while launching a grappling hook, staggering Zhong Yi mid-cast!

Both were Hutaos.

But with Zhong Yi caught off-guard and his ultimate interrupted, the disadvantage was overwhelming.

"I’m done for!"

Disarmed and desperate, Zhong Yi could only watch in despair as the enemy Hutao leaped high, her spear poised to strike down—

Then, a massive golden hand suddenly wrapped around the Hutao’s waist.

"Holy— There’s a Buddha here?! Which righteous cultivator dares to stand up for justice? Truly a fellow daoist of the— Huh?"

Zhong Yi blinked in confusion.

He was deep in the poison zone. Aside from Hutaos, other characters rarely ventured here.

Before he could process it, another golden hand shot toward him at blinding speed.

The wind howled against his face as Zhong Yi was yanked out of the poison zone by the Buddha’s rune-covered palm.

The black-faced Buddha, whose ID read [All of You Are Ants], stood at the center of the map—Celestial City.

Beneath his feet lay countless soul cairns.

Only then did Zhong Yi realize the name looked familiar.

This was the infamous "Legend of the Gathering Skull Continent" circulating on the forums these past few days!

The demonic Buddha who could grab people from eight hundred miles away!

"You—"

Before Zhong Yi could speak, the Buddha clapped his hands together, crushing him instantly.

After the match ended, Zhong Yi sat in stunned silence.

He had always assumed the forum posts about the demonic Buddha were just exaggerated stories made up for fun.

After all, the idea of a Buddha standing in Celestial City grabbing players from both Senluo Valley and the Forge Cavern sounded utterly absurd.

Until he experienced it himself.

That was a distance of several thousand meters!

Anyone would think some supreme expert had brought their cultivation into the illusion realm!

Zhong Yi browsed the forums again and found the number of players victimized by [All of You Are Ants] was skyrocketing.

According to eyewitness accounts, the demonic Buddha’s absurdity wasn’t limited to his infinite-range grabs.

In his human form, his movement speed, attack speed—everything was downright broken.

And his parry success rate was 100%. If you dared to charge an attack, he would disarm you.

An unstoppable force.

"Old Zhong, what’s with the long face? Did a single ranked match break you?"

Zhou Yue, joining the party, frowned at Zhong Yi’s gloomy expression.

"Ah, Old Zhou, you wouldn’t believe it…"

With a sigh, Zhong Yi recounted his ordeal.

"What?! Those forum posts are REAL?!"

Zhou Yue’s eyes widened. After a moment of thought, he felt an odd sense of déjà vu.

Lu Ze’s illusion realm had a history of spawning ridiculously overpowered characters.

Like the "Black Hand" from Minecraft, the demon lord Teemo from Immortal-Demon War, and the recent Ghost Buddha from Phantom Ghost Town.

"Hey, do you think it’s another one of Lu Ze’s creations? Like the Black Hand?"

"No. Absolutely not."

Zhong Yi shook his head firmly.

"Entities in the illusion realm exist as NPCs, not player characters. This has to be the work of an outsider!"

……

……

The main server of the illusion realm.

"Well? Did you track it down?"

Lu Ze asked.

"Hmph. You were right… Some ants thought they could fool this Heavenly Dao with their petty illusions."

The remnant spirit of the Heavenly Dao sneered, its voice laced with killing intent.

With a wave of its hand, streams of information materialized in the air.

"Thirteen illusion arrays in total… I’ll dismantle them all now."

"No rush."

Lu Ze, however, remained unhurried.

He studied the locations of the thirteen arrays and immediately understood.

As expected—it was the work of the Illusion Alliance.

Their goal was obvious: disrupt game balance and drive players away.

But simply destroying the arrays—or banning the accounts—would only be a temporary fix.

Lu Ze wasn’t in a hurry to ban them or dismantle their arrays.

For one, the purpose of the illusion realm was to harvest lives.

Having cheaters around only sped up the process.

And secondly…

The purpose behind their actions is nothing more than to undermine players' trust in the game's balance, making them yearn for a fantasy realm like "Heaven's Path Secret Realm," where they can freely bring in their cultivation levels.

However, Lu Ze believes that with the right approach, it’s entirely possible to make players admire his fair-competitive fantasy realm even more.

He couldn’t help but recall scenes from his past life—countless players uniting as one, slaying immortals and gods in a surge of blood-pumping excitement.

"They’ve entered the fantasy realm again."

At that moment, the remnant spirit of Heaven's Path suddenly spoke up, its face alight with excitement.

The reason for its excitement? It could finally go all out and teach these insolent ants a lesson.

Lu Ze nodded. "Pinpoint their locations."

Soon, the remnant spirit sent over the match details.

At a glance, Lu Ze spotted two familiar figures:

[Genius Cultivator] and [Break to Build].