After the Illusion Realm rankings concluded.
Just as Lu Ze had expected, the player count for "Venerables of the Eight Directions" plummeted.
The players were originally there for the rewards. Now that the online spirit stone giveaway was gone, they naturally left.
After all, with that amount of spirit stone consumption, featuring only outflows and no inflows, even a major sect couldn't withstand it.
The leader of the Illusion Alliance seemed to still hold a trace of hope for "Venerables of the Eight Directions" and made some adjustments.
For example, reverting the probability of hitting the jackpot, and offering extra rewards for knife runs...
When it comes to probabilities, once they are publicly increased, no matter how they are adjusted later, it is very difficult to reverse the decline.
If they don't change it, there's no such thing as rare value.
If they revert it, players who join later will always feel inferior...
Therefore, even with the reversion, the response was still mediocre, failing to stop the loss of players.
Having lost the player base, grassroots behaviors like knife runs naturally couldn't be sustained.
Even if the Illusion Alliance offered generous rewards for knife runs, without any player demand, there would be no improvement at all.
As for the two elders who originally created "Venerables of the Eight Directions," Blood Crow and Rakshasa.
It was said that a massive battle broke out between them in the Luofeng Continent, with tremendous momentum.
If the Inner Demon hadn't intervened in time to stop it, Rakshasa would have almost been beaten to death by Blood Crow.
Even so, he was severely injured and was currently recuperating within the Illusion Alliance.
As for why he didn't return to the Qingshan Sect...
It wasn't that he didn't want to return, but rather that he couldn't.
Ever since Rakshasa's identity as an elder of the Qingshan Sect was exposed, public opinion in the cultivation world had been in an uproar.
A Void Refinement Realm cultivator trying to use his cultivation to suppress a junior, and a junior who had just summoned a holy manifestation at that, naturally attracted countless condemnations.
After Chao Wendao, the Grand Elder of the Lingxiao Sect, learned of this matter, he took people to the Qingshan Sect that very day.
All eight elders turned out in full force, lining up to block the entrance of the Qingshan Sect.
With that kind of formation, those who knew they were there to demand an explanation thought it was fine, but those who didn't would think they were there to wipe out the sect...
The Qingshan Sect had no choice but to revoke Wei Chengqing's status as an elder, expel him from the sect, and compensate the Lingxiao Sect with a lot of resources before the storm was calmed.
However, in private, the rift between the Qingshan Sect and the Lingxiao Sect seemed to have deepened...
...
...
With all the system rewards and Heavenly Dao rewards in hand, Lu Ze instantly turned into a salted fish and lay flat.
It was just a pity that he didn't get the "Dao Transformation Art," so he could only look for another opportunity in the future.
The "Ten-Word True Art" given by the remnant spirit of the Heavenly Dao was a skill created by the world-renowned Sage Zhang during the ancient chaotic times, born specifically for the "Great Dao True Word Art."
Ten characters, each possessing the divine power to turn the tide.
Strong as it was, Lu Ze didn't like fighting and killing, and was simply too lazy to practice it.
He even thought about giving the "Ten-Word True Art" to Zhong Yi, waiting for him to train bitterly to great mastery, and then finding an opportunity to make him drop the skill as loot in the Illusion Realm, which would actually save him some trouble...
["Li Moran" has sent you a party invitation (Accept/Decline)]
"Not again..."
Lu Ze stretched his back and let his divine sense sink into the Illusion Realm.
His alt account, Bai Mu, only had two friends on its list.
One was Zhong Yi, and the other was Li Moran.
Considering that he was still not Li Moran's match, Lu Ze obediently joined the party.
As soon as Lu Ze's figure entered the party space, two brief words rang in his ears:
"Gun practice."
"...Alright."
A few days ago, Li Moran asked Lu Ze how to become stronger in the Illusion Realm.
Lu Ze's answer was to equip the gear she was usually too reluctant to use and practice her skills fiercely.
So for the past few days, whenever Li Moran saw Lu Ze online, she would pull him in to equip her with gear.
As strong as Li Moran was, bringing in level-six armor sets and soloing trios every match inevitably led her towards bankruptcy.
"Bring me Reaper Spirit Bullets and a level-six set."
Li Moran readied her own weapon and spoke calmly.
"Spirit bullets are ten spirit stones each, and a level-six set is thirty spirit stones."
Lu Ze asked for the price generously.
"By the way, can I carry a Heaven-Swallowing Backpack in to pick up the scraps?"
"...No, commit suicide as soon as you enter."
Li Moran glared at him.
If it was just to help bring gear, she could have just found Zhou Qiaoling.
But Lu Ze could point out some operational techniques from the post-death spectator perspective.
In "Operation Xianyuan Continent," which lacked a custom versus mode, this was the only way Lu Ze could give her guidance.
Therefore, even though Lu Ze sold his spirit bullets and level-six sets at many times higher than the market price, Li Moran had no complaints.
"Fine, fine."
Lu Ze threw his hands up.
He calculated in his heart that after the guidance session was over, he would make Li Moran's cyber soul ruthlessly do knife runs for his alt account.
As an important source of Demonic Path Points, Lu Ze would still find ways to maintain Li Moran's interest in the Illusion Realm.
Helping her become stronger was his method of keeping her around.
As for becoming so invincible that she would never die again?
That was impossible.
No matter how strong someone was, they couldn't escape the sanctions of the matchmaking system.
Lu Ze was very confident about this point.
...
The matchmaking intensity for Lu Ze's account was very high.
Every match was a high-tier lobby.
After wiping out two squads in a row, Li Moran was taken down by a third squad that came to third-party them.
"You exposed your positioning too much here..."
"When fighting one against three, the first thing to consider is splitting their firing lines. The position here..."
"You should have retreated here to heal up and ensure your condition before..."
...
After Lu Ze's thorough post-match analysis, Li Moran pondered thoughtfully for a while, then looked at Lu Ze as if she had attained enlightenment, a smile playing on her lips.
"So that's how it is. I understand."
Li Moran nodded.
Even in the Illusion Realm, Lu Ze could faintly sense that she had genuinely gained some new comprehension; her aura seemed to have grown a bit stronger.
Lu Ze couldn't help but feel a bit bewildered.
Just what exactly did you understand???
Recalling when Li Moran first started playing "Operation Xianyuan Continent," she was completely unlike her previous self who slaughtered everyone in all directions; she was even a bit of a noob.
Although the previous combat Illusion Realms were different from reality, at least many of the weapons and moves were somewhat similar.
What Li Moran excelled at had always been the sword.
So Lu Ze deduced that when it came to a shooting game, Li Moran was experiencing a lack of acclimatization.
But after just a few days, Li Moran seemed to have had an epiphany and suddenly became stronger.
And she kept getting stronger and stronger.
With this speed of improvement, if this were his past life, Lu Ze would definitely have praised her as a natural born FPS Holy Body.
"You've changed a lot recently. Did you comprehend something in the Illusion Realm?"
Lu Ze asked curiously.
Li Moran didn't shy away from it and calmly nodded.
"The sword is the foremost of all weapons... If I cannot even master this kind of weapon, how can I talk about entering the Dao through the sword?"
Li Moran stroked the Celestial Soldier Type-7 in her hands as if she were stroking the blade of a sword.
"And then I attained enlightenment."
"Those jittery bullet trajectories are nothing more than somewhat frenzied sword qi."
Hearing Li Moran's explanation, Lu Ze's mind was full of question marks.
He could only sigh in admiration. As expected of a Sword Dao genius, she could attain enlightenment doing literally anything...
Li Moran's eyes flickered slightly, and she suddenly asked, "By the way, the Heavenly Dao is going to hold a pinnacle tournament in 'Operation Xianyuan Continent'. Have you signed up?"
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.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"
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."
