Fortunately, the Judge Was One of Us

"Wait, why..."

"Falcon" was about to defend himself, but how could the Remnant Spirit of the Heavenly Dao be the type to patiently listen to his explanation?

A massive purple-black lightning bolt crashed down.

Under the immense pressure, "Falcon" could not move a single step.

The next moment, "Falcon" felt the cultivation base within his body rapidly draining away.

In just a few breaths of time, "Falcon's" realm plummeted from the Void Refinement stage to the Soul Formation stage, nearly dropping to the edge of the Nascent Soul stage.

With a thud, "Falcon" fell to his knees on the ground. The skin on his wrists suddenly developed countless wrinkles, as if he had aged a hundred years. He was so stunned that he could not speak.

Throughout the entire grotto-heaven, countless cultivators kept quiet out of fear, feeling an inexplicable terror chilling their backs.

The "punishment" spoken of by the Heavenly Dao was truly too severe for cultivators!

If this exalted entity was dissatisfied, hundreds of years of hard-earned cultivation could vanish in an instant!

For a moment, many cultivators present had the urge to back out and never touch the illusion realms again.

The giant pupil on the dome slightly contracted, and the voice of the Remnant Spirit of the Heavenly Dao sounded ethereal and ice-cold:

"A clumsy imitator is also an inferior."

"Moreover..."

"Extremely inferior."

...

...

Lu Ze's illusion realm world.

"Uh... so because someone else plagiarized my illusion realm, you sanctioned him?"

After hearing the Remnant Spirit of the Heavenly Dao's description, Lu Ze found it utterly unbelievable.

Good heavens, isn't this just like Minecraft and Mini World?

To think that transmigrating to a cultivation world to make games was one thing, but there was actually intellectual property protection law here too.

Furthermore, the "laws" here were far more terrifying than in his previous life.

Losing a century of cultivation at the drop of a hat—who could endure that?

Fortunately, the judge was on his side, so he did not have to live in fear like the others.

The Remnant Spirit of the Heavenly Dao glanced at the secretly smug Lu Ze and silently turned its back.

"What this Heavenly Dao did today was not to protect your illusion realm, but to protect all illusion realms. If you ever use such clumsy methods to imitate someone else's illusion realm in the future, this Heavenly Dao wouldn't mind punishing you once as well."

"Alright, alright, Lord Heavenly Dao is wise."

Lu Ze shrugged and agreed.

"By the way, what about the other illusion realms? Did they receive the same punishment?"

"Not quite."

The Remnant Spirit of the Heavenly Dao shook its head and tapped its fingertip against Lu Ze's forehead. Several scenes instantly rippled in his mind.

Lu Ze's pupils slightly dilated.

The number of illusion realms plagiarizing his could not be counted on two hands.

However, the Remnant Spirit of the Heavenly Dao's ruling for each illusion realm was different.

They were not even all punishments.

For example, Demon Lair Exploration, which was similar to Demonic Cult Escape, only received a minor penalty of "no cultivation advancement for a month"—something that barely even counted as a punishment.

Spiritual Pets Slaying Demonic Cultivators, which imitated Spiritual Plants vs. Zombies, received neither a reward nor a punishment.

Mystic Realm Battlefield, which was of the same genre as Immortal Realm Hegemony, not only escaped punishment but even received a rare heavenly material and earthly treasure as a reward...

...

Lu Ze pondered for a moment and quickly figured out the Remnant Spirit of the Heavenly Dao's logic for rewards and punishments.

When it came to imitation, it depended on whether it was blatant plagiarism or just drawing inspiration.

For example, Demon Lair Exploration and Cultivation World were considered pure rip-offs of Demonic Cult Escape and Minecraft, so they were all punished.

The difference was that the scenes and graphics of Demon Lair Exploration were redesigned, making it essentially a reskinned game, so it received a minor punishment.

On the other hand, Cultivation World was basically a one-to-one clone of Minecraft, so it received a rather severe penalty.

This was not to say that the people of the Illusion Alliance were lazy; it was just that for a pixelated block game like Minecraft, since the world was entirely made of blocks, there really was not much room for magical modifications...

As for Spiritual Pets Slaying Demonic Cultivators, it was indeed a tower defense game like Spiritual Plants vs. Zombies, and many of its core spiritual pets even shared the exact same attack designs as the latter's spiritual plants.

However, the levels were redesigned, and the designs of the demonic cultivators and zombies were vastly different.

Thus, it managed to escape the Heavenly Dao's punishment.

As for Mystic Realm Battlefield, while it was true that it shared the same roots as Immortal Realm Hegemony, it was not hard to see the designer's unique ingenuity in the unit designs.

Moreover, the illusion realm designer had added the concept of "Great Demons" to the map, which distinguished it from Immortal Realm Hegemony.

Although the production techniques were a bit rough, it was clearly a standout among the first batch of works, so it was not hard to understand why it earned a reward.

Inspiration is allowed, but plagiarism is forbidden.

This was the core principle behind the Remnant Spirit of the Heavenly Dao's actions.

After figuring this out, Lu Ze looked at the Remnant Spirit of the Heavenly Dao in disbelief:

"Good heavens, you truly are the modern embodiment of intellectual property protection law..."