Competition Day, Day Eleven.
Due to Lu Ze's midway entry, the discussions surrounding today's matches were even more heated than usual.
Early in the morning, a few visitors arrived at Lu Ze's Lingyu Pavilion.
"Junior Brother Lu, you're finally willing to participate?"
Zhou Yue said with a loud laugh, punching his palm in a display of high fighting spirit.
There were many rumors floating around about Lu Ze's true strength.
Some said he was incredibly powerful, while others claimed he was lacking.
In his heart, Zhou Yue believed Lu Ze must be formidable.
Therefore, as an Illusion Realm expert, he, much like Li Moran, was looking forward to crossing blows with Lu Ze.
"Haha, when the time comes, I'll take you on knife runs and give you all the loot!"
Zhong Yi was also highly anticipating this long-awaited encounter with Lu Ze in the Illusion Realm.
Of course, he had no idea that Lu Ze, under the alias Bai Mu, had already carried him to victory many times.
"We can't team up in this tournament, and we might not even get matched with Junior Brother Lu!"
Mu Yawen gave a naive smile.
He had no desire for rankings or prizes.
He only joined the fun because Zhou Yue and Zhong Yi were participating, finding it quite entertaining to log in every day.
"Then if we aren't on the same team, how about we use a secret signal? Let's help Junior Brother Lu get some points?"
Zhong Yi suggested again.
"Will Junior Brother Lu... really respond to the signal? I have a feeling we'll just get backstabbed..."
Zhou Qiaoling, standing at the very back, muttered softly.
"There's no need for secret signals. With so many eyes watching, it wouldn't look good."
Lu Ze shook his head.
As a game designer, sending or receiving secret signals in an official setting was inappropriate.
Otherwise, it could easily be twisted by the players into some sort of official rule.
Moreover, the system's requirement for him was to act using demonic methods.
If he really encountered acquaintances giving him signals, he would definitely show no mercy and viciously backstab them.
"That's true..."
Zhong Yi nodded, then smiled at Lu Ze and said:
"Oh right, Junior Brother Lu. Tonight is your first match, and everyone is really looking forward to it... We've discussed it beforehand. We'll play fewer matches tonight and all go to the venue to cheer for you!"
Lu Ze took a deep breath: "All of you??"
"That's right! Me, Old Zhou, a few elders from the sect, and also..."
Zhong Yi was elated, listing them off like family treasures.
Lu Ze's scalp went numb, and cold sweat broke out.
"How about we just forget it? I can't delay everyone's push for the rankings..."
"What are you saying? You are the pride of our Lingxiao Sect!"
"If I delay you all and cause you to miss out on the Heavenly Dao rewards, I won't be able to bear the responsibility..."
"You are a Saint! Even a novice Saint is still a Saint! We have to support you!!"
"Old Zhong, the term 'novice Saint' sounds a bit weird..."
...
...
Nighttime.
The Hour of You had not yet arrived.
Over 100,000 viewers had already gathered in the Heavenly Dao livestream room.
If this number were placed in his previous life, it would have to be multiplied by at least ten.
After all, no matter how prosperous the cultivation era was, the number of cultivators could never be compared to ordinary people.
In the previous few days, although the audience could also exceed 100,000, they gathered slowly.
There hadn't been a single day like today, where such an exaggerated number was reached before the matches even started.
The bullet screen comments blotted out the sky, their target completely unified.
[Where is Old Demon Lu? When is he coming?]
[Hahaha! We, the Ten Outstanding Rogue Cultivators, are ready. As long as Old Demon Lu dares to enter the Administration Palace, we will make sure he dies in a place he'd never expect!]
[Fellow Daoist, are you the Ten Outstanding Rogue Cultivators or the Ten Demonic Beasts?]
[Once Old Demon Lu makes a move, the whole network will hunt him down!]
[Could it be he's scared? Doesn't dare to show up?]
[It shouldn't be, right? He's the one who created the Illusion Realm, after all.]
[So what if he created it? Creating an Illusion Realm and fighting in one are two different things!]
[Wait a minute. I remember Old Demon Lu has an undefeated record in Illusion Realm battles...]
...
Lu Ze's strength in the Illusion Realm had never been accurately measured.
Because the match records of Lu Ze participating under his real identity were pitifully few.
In Spirit Plants vs. Zombies, he played the endless mode once.
In the ancient times when no one in the Lingxiao Sect could pass level 30, he easily surpassed level 100.
In Immortal Realm Hegemony, he played a final match as a Demonic Boss.
Even when the true disciples of the five great sects joined forces, they were easily wiped out by him.
During Liar's Tavern, he played cards once with three true disciples from other sects.
According to the accounts of the three true disciples, Lu Ze's grasp of human psychology was too monstrous; they couldn't win a single point from him.
Then there was Demonic Kill, where he participated in the grand finale as a guest.
Despite a disastrous start, he perfectly deceived everyone and accomplished the miraculous feat of turning the tables from a desperate situation.
It did seem like he was undefeated.
However, if players observed carefully, they would realize that aside from Immortal Realm Hegemony, Lu Ze's extraordinary plays relied entirely on intellect and strategy.
Therefore, to the netizens, Lu Ze's actual combat strength in the Illusion Realm remained unknown.
Some said he was amazing, while others said he was average or even a noob.
As the number of Realm Masters increased, the consensus gradually leaned toward the latter.
Because there were many cultivators creating Illusion Realms, but once the condition of isolating one's cultivation base was added, even if the Realm Master created the illusion, the designer might not perform better than highly skilled players.
In fact, many Realm Masters played terribly, completely below the standard level.
At this moment, the bullet screen was arguing fiercely over Lu Ze's strength.
[Does an undefeated record from that era even count? How many cultivators played in Illusion Realms back then? And how many Realm Masters were there?]
[Just answer if he's undefeated or not.]
[Aside from Immortal Realm Hegemony, the other Illusion Realms were all strategy-based... This at most proves that Old Demon Lu is quite smart.]
[Does Immortal Realm Hegemony necessarily mean his mechanics are good? The genius cultivators back then were also considered experts, but now they are all fallen geniuses.]
[To be fair, I was at the Lingxiao Sect venue during Immortal Realm Hegemony... Old Demon Lu's hand speed was genuinely terrifying.]
[No matter how fast, Immortal Realm Hegemony is still different from combat Illusion Realms like Naraka: Bladepoint and Xianyuan Continent Operation.]
[I don't think Old Demon Lu can be that good. Otherwise, with his personality, he would have been torturing us players in ranked matches a long time ago.]
[How do you know he hasn't?]
...
Amidst the players' arguments, the number of people in the livestream room continued to increase.
The Heavenly Dao livestream room was a very special broadcasting Illusion Realm.
After Lu Ze made the proposal, the Heavenly Dao Remnant Spirit used its own spells to bring it to life.
In the center of the livestream room was a massive and crystal-clear Illusion Realm projection, surrounded by an annular spectator stand that continuously expanded outward circle by circle.
No matter how many people came, the spectator stand could always silently adjust its size to accommodate everyone.
The spectator stand was divided into many sections.
Each of the five great sects had its own large zone, while registered minor sects and factions had their respective smaller sub-zones. Additionally, there was an independent area for rogue cultivators.
The major sect zones required a cultivator's registration information to enter, whereas the rogue cultivator area allowed anyone to come and go freely.
At this moment, the number of heads in the main spectator zone was still increasing, and the venue was continuously expanding.
The number of disciples in the Lingxiao Sect zone gradually grew.
The Hour of You arrived.
The competitors successively entered the matchmaking queue, and the matches began one after another.
The spectators in the venue disappeared batch by batch.
For every match, a new livestream room would be generated.
Whenever a viewer selected a contestant in the match, their perspective would automatically follow them.
At this moment,
the center of the arena in one particular live stream was pitch-black, yet tens of thousands of spectators were packed tightly around it.
They were all here waiting for Lu Ze.
Just as the live chat flooded with speculations about whether Lu Ze had run away,
the scene in the center of the arena finally lit up.
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
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.
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."
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
