A month had passed in the blink of an eye.
Lu Ze spent his days deeply immersed in the illusion realm, not even having time to visit the Spirit Moon Pavilion.
Although he had cultivated the Art of Dao Transformation to its Grand Perfection, it was, after all, something left by a predecessor.
When it came to some of the finer details, the techniques he had developed himself—methods that embodied the Dao through his own body—actually worked better.
So day after day, Lu Ze studied how to optimize and merge the two techniques.
But the more he studied, the more troublesome it became...
True, the techniques grew more refined and more powerful by the day.
The problem, however, was that the amount of divine sense required had become utterly outrageous!
Every time an intelligent NPC was added, the divine sense needed to construct the illusion realm multiplied exponentially.
And it was worth noting that Lu Ze's current divine sense intensity was already higher than that of the average Divine Void Realm cultivator!
If even he found it strenuous, just how insane were these divine sense requirements?
Come to think of it, it made sense.
Every additional special NPC added countless new possibilities to the story's direction.
Once he tried to use the hand of the Heavenly Dao to force the world's course into a single path, the computational power required was bound to be an absolutely terrifying number!
"I'm guessing the senior who created the Art of Dao Transformation didn't have something like a cyber ten-thousand-soul banner, huh..."
Lu Ze smiled wryly.
The real problem was that the cyber ten-thousand-soul banner was just too broken overpowered.
If he didn't have such highly intelligent NPCs, he wouldn't need such a powerful processor.
"Damn it. If I'd known sooner, I wouldn't have dumped three hundred years' worth of enlightenment insights into it... pure side effects!"
Lu Ze was furious inside.
Having grown used to the life of a rich young master, he had maxed out the Art of Dao Transformation with a mere wave of his hand.
The way things looked now, he would need to reach at least the Divine Void Realm before his divine sense could support the consumption of making a large-scale, plot-heavy illusion realm.
Total waste.
"Unless... I can find a Chaos Soul Crystal?"
Lu Ze suddenly remembered the high-grade elixir he had obtained as a quest reward.
That was a Golden-Tier item.
Even the replica had such powerful effects—if he could obtain a genuine Chaos Soul Crystal, wouldn't his divine sense problem be solved in no time?
Not willing to give up, Lu Ze once again came to the server world where the remnant will of the Heavenly Dao resided.
"Do you take my place for some kind of wishing well?"
The remnant will of the Heavenly Dao shot Lu Ze an annoyed glance.
Over these past days, it had been pestered non-stop by Lu Ze, who came begging and pleading every single day for a Chaos Soul Crystal.
"A coin fountain at a temple."
Lu Ze blinked, his brain short-circuiting for a moment as he conjured a copper coin and tossed it at the remnant will.
"You're the turtle."
The remnant will of the Heavenly Dao immediately caught on, raised a finger, and instantly transformed Lu Ze into a tiny turtle.
Lu Ze's mouth twitched. "You can't take a joke!!"
Seeing that the remnant will couldn't be bothered to acknowledge him, Lu Ze felt a sinking feeling in his heart.
It probably really didn't have a Chaos Soul Crystal in its spatial pocket.
There were countless treasures in the world, but the remnant will of the Heavenly Dao had no hobby of collecting valuables; it only kept a few by chance.
"Then just tell me which ancient secret realm has one... I'll go get it myself, alright?"
Lu Ze still refused to give up.
These ancient heavenly materials and earthly treasures probably had no naturally occurring ones left in the present age.
If he wanted to find one, he'd have to take his chances in ancient secret realms.
Without intelligence, the odds of finding one were less than one in ten thousand.
"That is a heavenly secret, not to be revealed."
The remnant will of the Heavenly Dao said calmly.
"However... there really is the aura of one Chaos Soul Crystal left in this world."
Lu Ze's eyes lit up. "Where?"
"In the area where I swatted that array-chanting spirit last time."
"The Luo Feng Continent?!"
...
...
Having learned the crucial information that a Chaos Soul Crystal still existed in the world, Lu Ze immediately prepared to set off.
At his current stage, his daily income of demonic path points had reached a saturation point.
It would be hard to make any further breakthroughs through simple killing alone.
That meant harvesting the emotional turmoil of cultivators became another path on his martial-immortal journey.
It had been quite some time since the release of This Demon Isn't That Cold; considering how the cultivators' psychological wounds had probably healed up well enough already.
It was time to feed them some fresh trauma.
This made the Chaos Soul Crystal all the more important.
Otherwise, he'd first have to reach the Divine Void Realm before he could produce a perfect, large-scale plot-driven game.
Lu Ze packed his bags and went to Nan Gong Yuan's residence.
"Disobedient disciple, what do you want now?"
"Master, I need to go on a trip."
"Where to?"
"The Luo Feng Continent, to look for a Chaos Soul Crystal... Master, can you have someone search for leads for me? I'll pay a good price."
"You..."
Hearing Lu Ze's answer, Nan Gong Yuan's breath hitched instantly. With a wave of his hand, he put up a barrier, sealing Lu Ze's retreat.
"You want to join the Illusion Alliance?"
"What?!?!"
Lu Ze was stunned.
What Illusion Alliance?
Utterly random!
"Didn't you just say you wanted to go to the Luo Feng Continent, and that you were looking for something called a Chaos Soul Crystal..."
Nan Gong Yuan inspected Lu Ze with extreme caution, as if afraid he had been possessed by some kind of hex.
"The Illusion Alliance is in the Luo Feng Continent, and they just started recruiting talent—with a Chaos Soul Crystal as the top prize!"
"?!?! Master, where did you get that news??"
"The forums! That's your own turf, isn't it!"
After hearing Nan Gong Yuan's words, Lu Ze quickly submerged his divine sense into the illusion realm and opened the forum.
At the top of the trending posts in the public section was the Illusion Alliance's recruitment notice for Illusion Realm Masters.
[Illusion Realm Masters, Assemble!]
[The Illusion Alliance will be hosting an Illusion Realm Exchange Conference next month in Tianshui City of the Great Qian Dynasty, aiming to recruit talent and walk the path of the illusion realm together!]
[During the exchange, the Illusion Alliance will invite three major sects/organizations to set real-world needs as trial conditions. Participants must solve the organizations' requests using the means of illusion realms.]
[Exchange Conference Rules:]
[1. Participants must attend in person.]
[2. Illusion realms must be created on-site.]
[3. To prevent cheating, the Illusion Tower will be uniformly provided by the Alliance; bringing private equipment is strictly prohibited.]
[4. Each sect/organization's proposition can only have one winning Illusion Realm Master. The winner receives one point.]
[5. This exchange will be supervised by the Heavenly Dao, ensuring fairness and transparency.]
[Exchange Conference Rewards:]
[First-Class Award (3 Points): Chaos Soul Crystal, Art of the Purple Palace Immortal Embryo...]
[Second-Class Award (2 Points): Void-Real Heavenly Mushroom, Heaven-Slashing Sword...]
[Third-Class Award (1 Point): Nine-Turn Soul Revival Elixir, Wilderness Sky-Splitting Palm...]
[Participation Award (No points needed, optional upon joining the Alliance): Celestial Jade Essence, Seven-Star Demon-Sealing Tower...]
Lu Ze's gaze was instantly locked onto the words "Chaos Soul Crystal" in the first-class award.
He had a vague feeling that the Illusion Alliance was targeting him.
Given so many specific conditions, this might be a trap.
But he couldn't care less.
He was determined to get that Chaos Soul Crystal!
A grin spread across Lu Ze's lips:
"Master, come with me to Tianshui City."
Nan Gong Yuan's mouth twitched:
"Between the two of us, who exactly is the master here..."
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
