Five days into the second phase.
With Zhou Yue and Li Moran leading the charge, the Lingxiao Sect firmly held first place and advanced early.
“Junior Brother Lu, I didn’t realize you were this formidable?”
Zhou Yue said with deep admiration after receiving various pointers from Lu Ze.
Throughout these days of battle, Lu Ze had never once made a move.
Fighting had been handled solely by Zhou Yue and Li Moran, while Lu Ze only focused on eating.
Occasionally, he would start by blowing himself up, then watch their perspectives to offer lessons—each one greatly benefited Zhou Yue.
Zhou Yue had guessed before that Lu Ze was skilled, but he hadn’t expected him to be this skilled.
The main reason for the surprise was the deep, rigid impression created by those first five days of the “beginner” playstyle.
“Given how strong you are, why were you unwilling to put in real effort those days?”
Zhou Yue asked, utterly puzzled.
“I was very serious about trimming toenails!”
Lu Ze explained earnestly.
He hadn’t meant to act that way intentionally.
But he couldn’t help it—it was all ordered by the system!
“…You’re something else!”
Zhou Yue gave a helpless thumbs-up, then asked in confusion.
“Hey, what’s strange is… when you submitted our team name back then, didn’t Elder Zhao stop you from including the Lingxiao Sect’s name?”
Upon hearing this, Li Moran, who had been sipping tea nearby, nearly spat it out.
The other teams’ names all related to their respective sects or factions.
Only the three of them had the name “Trim Your Jade Feet,” which had absolutely nothing to do with the Lingxiao Sect.
At the time, Zhao Wendao had let out a sigh of relief when he heard their team name.
The elders had clearly been worried that Lu Ze, bearing the Lingxiao Sect’s banner, might suddenly have a mental lapse and take Li Moran and Zhou Yue into unscrupulous behavior.
After all, that scene of being mixed in with twelve people and fighting from the back was far too demonic…
“So you’ve been planning not to make a move all along?”
Li Moran looked at Lu Ze.
“Double-protector down, that’s just a single explosion… isn’t that the rule?”
Lu Ze replied with a smile.
“Fair point… Among these people, none can get past me and Junior Sister Li.”
Zhou Yue nodded, feeling a slight pang of regret.
He suddenly understood why Li Moran had initially wanted to compete against Lu Ze rather than team up with him.
Li Moran remained silent for a moment before speaking slowly:
“In the last three days, that team ‘Twilight of the Epoch’… felt a bit off.”
“Off how?”
Lu Ze asked curiously.
Most of the time, he just stood around playing “Sanguosha” idle, waiting to finally start, with no real knowledge of the opponents’ specific situations.
“Their strength… fluctuating and unstable?”
Li Moran frowned slightly.
“There were certain moments when they even surpassed me… all my moves were predicted.”
“Yeah, I kind of felt that too… Maybe it was a lucky streak?”
Zhou Yue nodded, some memory slowly surfacing, but he didn’t dwell on it.
“Perhaps.”
Li Moran closed her eyes and stopped dwelling on it.
Though it was a pity she couldn’t duel Lu Ze in the competition,
having him around always brought peace of mind.
…
The seventh day of the second phase.
“Twilight of the Epoch” advanced in second place.
Luofeng Plain, Illusion Alliance base.
“Alliance Leader, I’ve made it… I’ve made it!”
Huang Yuwen opened his eyes from the Ten Directions Demon Subduing Array, shouting excitedly despite the bloodshot veins in his eyes.
The figure of the Heart Demon instantly appeared before him.
The Heart Demon’s gaze quickly swept across the formation.
Of the ten spiritual lamps around the formation, eight were lit.
The ninth lamp flickered on and off for a good while, but in the end, it went out.
“Oh? You’ve already summoned the eighth spirit and are brushing against the threshold of the ninth?”
The Heart Demon’s voice carried a rare hint of astonishment, but it quickly calmed as he placed his hand on Huang Yuwen’s shoulder.
“You’ve got talent.”
With that, a surge of spiritual energy flowed into Huang Yuwen’s body.
In an instant, Huang Yuwen’s aura swelled dramatically.
“I... I broke through? I broke through!”
Huang Yuwen was overwhelmed with excitement, a sudden urge to sacrifice everything for the Phantom Alliance burning in his chest.
The Heart Demon gazed at the Ten Direction Spirit-Descent Array, lost in thought.
Cheating within the illusion was no simple task.
Back when Swordsmen and Demons Clash was at its peak, the demonic sects had, in their quest for rewards, kidnapped several renowned independent cultivator players and extracted their souls for their own use.
The result? They were besieged and their lairs destroyed by righteous cultivators acting in unison.
During the heyday of Eternal Strife, when the Phantom Alliance was just getting started,
Elder Jiang Lingfeng of the Limitless Sword Sect had used spells to block the heavens’ spiritual energy, cutting off the control of the remnant Heavenly Dao. He then injected his own cultivation into the game, crushing a horde of players.
Naturally, the consequences were far worse.
Violating the illusion’s rules was a blatant act of defiance against the Heavenly Dao’s remnant will.
That venerable elder, Jiang Lingfeng, was struck down by two full cultivation realms and had his foundation damaged, rendering him incapable of further progress for life.
After studying two major cheating incidents, the Heart Demon had drawn his conclusions.
To cheat within the illusion, one must first avoid breaking its rules.
Someone like Jiang Lingfeng, who in Eternal Strife activated speed boosts, invincibility, and zero-cooldown abilities…
Even a fool would know he was cheating!
Stirring up trouble in the territory of the Heavenly Dao’s remnant will meant either death or at least crippling injury.
Thus, the illusion’s rules must not be interfered with.
Even if interference was necessary, it had to be subtle—at least on the surface, nothing suspicious should appear.
The demonic sects’ method was effective enough.
But their methods were unacceptable to the righteous factions and far too easy to expose.
Making enemies of the entire righteous path simply wasn’t worth it.
Besides, their approach was crude.
Using other people’s souls was essentially letting someone else play the game for them.
That was meaningless.
After all, among the players of Spirit Firmament Sect, Li Moran and Zhou Yue were the only two who could simultaneously defeat both—and in this world, no one else could match them.
The Heart Demon’s conclusion was this:
Strengthen the cultivators externally,
And interfere with the illusion’s rules in the most covert way possible, ensuring no one could detect it on the surface.
Combining both approaches, he refined his Ten Direction Spirit-Descent Array.
The first five spirit lamps enhanced the cultivator’s five senses while their cultivation was sealed.
Even with all five lamps lit, one could at most tie with Zhou Yue—but still struggle to get past Li Moran.
But the next five lamps were capable of subtly distorting the illusion’s rules, granting secret advantages to the cultivator.
When the sixth lamp lit, one could sense gazes from behind.
In other words, Lu Ze’s treacherous ambush tactics would no longer be a threat.
When the seventh lamp lit, the cultivator could see the location of all enemies on the full map, even their names.
“The eighth and ninth lamps… what effects do they have?” the Heart Demon asked calmly.
“After activating the eighth lamp, I felt like my marksmanship became unmatched! Even if I aimed into thin air, the gun barrel would automatically snap onto the target…”
“As for the ninth lamp…”
“I vaguely felt I could see where my opponent would move in the future?”
Huang Yuwen answered honestly, then puffed out his chest with pride.
"But rest assured, Alliance Leader. Once the seventh and eighth spiritual lamps are lit, even Li Moran will be no match for me!"
"Let us hope so."
The Heart Demon nodded.
Huang Yuwen quickly added, "By the way, Alliance Leader... if the tenth spiritual lamp were to be lit, what would happen?"
The Heart Demon narrowed his eyes behind his mask, peering at the rapidly collapsing spiritual veins inside Huang Yuwen's body.
"I do not know... but you won't need it."
He had not transferred his power earlier to reward Huang Yuwen.
Rather, it was to prevent Huang Yuwen from sensing the abnormality within himself. On one hand, he planted a mark inside him; on the other, he strengthened Huang Yuwen's physical body to withstand the erosion of the Ten Directions Spirit-Subduing Array.
In the second stage, there were 201 participants, which should have formed 67 teams.
In the end, fewer than 60 teams entered the competition.
No one knew,
That the Phantom Alliance had secretly recruited thirty top-tier protectors.
Ultimately, only three people survived past the fifth spiritual lamp.
for mindless slaughter, this isn't for you.] My name is Ye Shu, and I'm a transmigrator. It seems I'm supposed to be the protagonist, but that feels pretty unlikely. This world has been invaded by a system. The antagonists on the other side have suddenly become pure, flawless saints. The female leads have been force-fed the so-called "original plot," making them think they've been reborn. Now, everyone thinks I'm scum. Including the old lady in my ring. And here I am, in the Monster Beast Mountain Range, braising pork. To put my situation in perspective— It's as if, the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Monster Beast Mountain Range, the Soul Emperor already knew he would become the Flame Emperor, and Yao Lao had been turned to the enemy's side. I have nothing right now. Oh wait, that's not true. I do have a white-haired loli child-bride who's the Heavenly Dao, and her only skill is acting cute. So, tell me guys... what are my chances of making it to the end?
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."
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
