First Disciple of the Saint

"A hard day's work is finally over..."

Lu Ze exited the illusion and stretched lazily.

Being an absolute scumbag was not an easy task, especially when you had to constantly invent new ways to be one, using a completely different routine in every single match.

Lu Ze glanced at his assets, which had now reached 16 million.

This amount of wealth wasn't actually that high.

Aside from the first few matches where he encountered fully-geared squads trying to snipe him and looted so much he could barely walk, the majority of the subsequent matches only yielded pitiful knife-runners trying to scavenge.

The matchmaking pool for new competitors on the first day wasn't exactly wealthy to begin with, and considering he spent many matches camping the outer perimeter, Lu Ze felt this was quite normal.

He didn't care about the asset issue anyway.

As long as it was enough to advance to the second stage of the tournament, it was fine.

Right now, the only thing he cared about was the system's Demonic Path Evaluation of his actions.

After a whole night of hard work, the progress bar for his Demonic Path Evaluation had reached 30%.

"So slow..."

Lu Ze frowned.

The first time he used the "Bring the Flower" tactic to steal someone's loot, the progress bar jumped by 5%. Lu Ze originally thought this mission would only take twenty uses of "Bring the Flower" to complete.

But it didn't turn out as he expected; the further he went, the slower the progress bar moved.

"Could it be that everyone has gotten used to seeing it, so it doesn't have the same impact anymore? Whatever, there are still four days left..."

Lu Ze closed the system mission panel and turned to open the forums.

After doing scumbag things all night, he was actually quite curious about how netizens were evaluating him now.

Lu Ze suddenly somewhat understood why, in his previous life, some murderers didn't flee after committing a crime, but instead returned to the scene...

At this moment, the "Operation Xianyuan Continent" section of the forum was bustling with activity.

An overwhelming number of posts were all about Lu Ze.

After Lu Ze performed "Bring the Flower" a few times that night, Zhong Yi had analyzed the core of this playstyle.

First, the [Rat·Eighteen] weapon had a burst-fire mode, making it extremely cost-effective.

Second, using flesh-damage ammo to shoot the legs would instantly kill you, no matter if you were wearing tier-six or tier-eight armor.

Third, using the Red Wolf's smoke and ultimate ability to reposition gave a very high success rate for escaping.

They even figured out the easter egg mechanism where the Etched Gold Rose played background music.

In an instant, this caused countless cultivators to imitate him.

[Thanks to Old Demon Lu! This fatty just ate 2.6 million! [Picture]]

[I painfully spent money to draw the Etched Gold Rose. As soon as I reached the shipping container area, I met two other Red Wolves...]

[You really can't go to the Dam right now! It's full of Red Wolf spawn points!!]

[Just played a match. There was a Red Wolf on the western stairs of the containers, one at the corner of the containers below, and another behind the large medical kit on the east...]

[Played a whole match, and the Administration Palace was dead silent. Push open any random door and a Red Wolf pops out. Who can handle this???]

[Didn't the Righteous Path Alliance say it long ago? Dam Zero is fraught with danger!]

[Old Demon Lu, look at the current atmosphere of the cultivation world!!!]

[Whatever happened to the birth of a Sage bringing about an era of peace and prosperity? Now society is going downhill, and morals have degenerated!!]

[Well, you have to look at what kind of Sage it is. What if it's the Original Sage...]

...

Lu Ze originally thought the netizens would overwhelmingly curse him out.

But to his surprise, he found that the people cursing him and the people supporting him were actually split fifty-fifty?

Ever since his various rat-camping playstyles came out of nowhere, the originally small circle of players who liked to play dirty instantly expanded several times over.

How should one describe the feeling of "Bring the Flower"...

Once you experienced it just one time, it was hard not to get addicted.

Because the cost was so low, even if you died ten times, you wouldn't lose much.

But as long as your ambush succeeded once, the thrill was out of this world.

As for those victims who woke up drooling in anger...

A significant portion of them eventually joined the "Bring the Flower" army as well.

The main philosophy was: because I was caught in the rain, I must tear up everyone else's umbrellas.

The sudden popularity of "Bring the Flower" led to a massive spike in sales for the [Etched Gold Rose].

The "Bring the Flower" that Lu Ze showcased in front of hundreds of thousands of eyes had an explosive effect, making every Red Wolf who joined the loot-stealing army want to draw one.

After all, the animation of holding the flower was just too cool.

Just as Lu Ze was feeling smug, a system notification suddenly popped up before his eyes:

[The host's ruthless methods have shattered the worldviews of orthodox cultivators!]

[Multiple orthodox cultivators have taken the host as a role model, are currently imitating the host's behavior, and are willing to become disciples of the demonic path!]

[The host has made a massive contribution to demonic path reputation!]

[Progress Bar +10%]

"???"

Lu Ze was shocked.

This actually works?

In just one short night, "Bring the Flower" was running rampant.

The "Bring the Flower" players crowned themselves the "Original Sage Sect," respectfully taking Lu Ze as their founding ancestor, and began calling themselves "Disciples of the Original Sage" everywhere they went.

Lu Ze guessed that perhaps this was the reason?

He had worked so hard playing the Original Sage all night, and the progress bar only reached 30%.

Yet these Original Sage disciples, generating power through pure passion, actually bumped it up by 10% all at once?

He shook his head with a wry smile. It seemed he had to take it upon himself to carry forward and glorify the Original Sage playstyle.

...

...

The First Stage, Day Twelve.

Compared to the previous day, the heat in the Heavenly Dao Livestream was even more explosive.

Visibly, the venue was a full circle larger than usual.

One could easily imagine the impact Lu Ze's signature "Bring the Flower" had on the players.

The bullet comments in the sky were densely packed.

[Respectfully welcoming the Original Sage Ancestor!]

[I wonder what new things Old Demon Lu can bring us today...]

[Yesterday truly opened my eyes!]

[Don't even mention it, I'm never going to the Dam again in this lifetime.]

[The Dam already had a lot of weirdos, but with Old Demon Lu stirring things up, there are even more of them and they are even weirder now.]

[Today's map is Bakshi. The old tricks probably won't work well, right?]

...

Lingxiao Sect Spectator Area.

The overall number of people in the Heavenly Dao Livestream had increased, but the number of people in the Lingxiao Sect's dedicated area had dropped by a full half compared to yesterday.

"How strange... why did the number of people suddenly drop so much?"

Zhou Yue looked around curiously, somewhat puzzled.

"Just think about it. With all those dirty tricks Junior Brother Lu pulled yesterday... the other sects are looking at us with very weird expressions now..."

Zhong Yi smiled helplessly.

"Uh, I guess that makes sense."

Zhou Yue had deep personal experience with Lu Ze's dirty tricks.

Yesterday, halfway through watching, he exited the livestream to go play some ranked matches.

Good heavens, everyone he matched with was a disciple of the "Bring the Flower" sect.

He played all night and ended up losing 5 million...

"Oh? The match is starting! Junior Brother Lu is right on time today!"

Seeing the central screen suddenly light up, Zhong Yi, who had been waiting for a long time, got a gleam in his eye.

"Let me see who Junior Brother Lu matched with, and if there's anyone intentionally trying to snipe him..."

Zhong Yi began to study the match roster in the top left corner, and suddenly his eyes went wide.

"Exercise Brings Progress..."

"Junior Brother Mu!?"