Gameplay of the Illusion

Zhong Yi took out a pen and marked his route on the map, drawing a crooked line.

Three elite monster rooms, one shop, one treasure chest room, and two bonfires.

"How strange, why do there have to be two bonfires? This must be a trap set by Junior Brother Lu!"

Zhong Yi muttered to himself, pinning his chin.

In Lu Ze's past life, players had suffered greatly at the hands of Old Man Miyazaki. The sense of security that bonfires brought was instinctual.

But in the world of immortal cultivation, no one yet understood the value of bonfires.

After planning his route, Zhong Yi entered the first room.

The view slowly expanded before him.

It wasn't what Zhong Yi had imagined. He wasn't fighting as a disciple of the Iron Armor Sect.

A disciple of the Iron Armor Sect stood in a dense jungle, facing a green, lizard-like monster.

Zhong Yi was in the form of a transparent spirit, drifting at the edge of the battlefield.

In front of him, five enormous cards appeared.

A message specifically for beginners showed up:

[Play a card, and the character will take the corresponding action. Defeat your opponent by playing cards!]

[Cards require spiritual energy to play. When your spiritual energy is depleted, end your turn.]

[At the start of each turn, your spiritual energy will be replenished, and you will draw new cards.]

"Oh? Using card play to control the character's actions?"

Zhong Yi raised an eyebrow, instantly understanding the concept.

His hand consisted of five cards: three [Strike] and two [Defend].

[Strike] dealt six damage, while [Defend] provided five armor.

"Isn't this similar to my 'Brave the Demon Pagoda'? Truly, great minds think alike~"

Zhong Yi couldn't help but feel a bit proud.

After being enlightened by Lu Ze, he had come up with the idea of using numerical values to replace fighting.

Essentially, he divided the character's stats into health, attack, and defense.

In combat, attack and defense would subtract, and the difference would be the damage dealt.

The underlying logic of damage in Kill the Immortal Tower was the same.

Zhong Yi looked at his opponent, a green Little Gnawing Beast.

This creature had 42 health and 12 attack.

Zhong Yi currently had 3 spiritual energy. Both [Strike] and [Defend] cost 1 spiritual energy, meaning he could only play three cards.

"No need to think twice! Two defenses and one strike!"

Zhong Yi instantly arrived at the answer, playing the three hand cards at once.

The Iron Armor Sect disciple summoned two layers of spiritual protection, gaining 10 armor, and then delivered a slash, dealing 6 damage to the Little Gnawing Beast.

With his 3 spiritual energy exhausted, Zhong Yi ended his turn, entering the Little Gnawing Beast's turn.

The Little Gnawing Beast's turn was straightforward. It simply lunged, tearing through Zhong Yi's protective spirit energy and dealing 2 damage.

As a tutorial level, the first monster the player encounters was quite simple in its mechanics.

After three rounds, Zhong Yi had a general understanding of the illusion realm's gameplay.

It was a turn-based illusion where players and monsters took turns. The player could not act during the monster's turn.

The player used cards to make the character take corresponding actions. Each card required a certain amount of spiritual energy, ranging from 1 to 2 points.

However, the player only had 3 spiritual energy points.

"So that means..."

"Planning which cards to play each round is the most important part of this illusion?"

Zhong Yi pondered for a moment, then touched his chin with a touch of confusion.

"But that aside, aren't the cards too simple?"

His card pool consisted of 10 cards total.

5 [Strikes], 4 [Defends], and 1 [Power Strike], which cost 2 spiritual energy.

The mechanics were easy to understand but felt very limited.

No matter how you mixed it up, it was still just attacking and defending, wasn't it?

"A bit below Junior Brother Lu's standards... What the hell! This little thing's attack jumped to fourteen?!"

The Little Gnawing Beast had buffed itself on the previous turn. In this turn, its attack power skyrocketed, causing Zhong Yi to frantically play all three Strikes, just barely emptying the monster's health bar.

The Little Gnawing Beast let out a whimper and crashed to the ground. Two wisps of hazy gray spirit energy rose from its corpse.

"Is that...?"

Curious, Zhong Yi reached out and touched them. Two options appeared before him.

In one spirit energy cluster lay twelve spirit stones.

In the other cluster were three cards with their faces hidden.

"Is this the loot from winning?"

Zhong Yi quickly understood. He touched the cluster containing the cards.

The shadows of three enormous cards appeared before him:

[Prepared Strike (1 spiritual energy): Deal 7 damage. Gain 2 strength this round.]

[Tremble (1 spiritual energy): Inflict 2 stacks of "Vulnerable" (Vulnerable: The target takes 50% more damage from attacks).]

[Blood Wall (2 spiritual energy): Lose 2 health. Gain 16 block.]

"I knew Junior Brother Lu's illusion realm couldn't be this ordinary!"

Zhong Yi's eyes lit up.

After winning, he could pick one of the three cards to add to his deck.

This was, in essence, learning a new skill for his character.

With this, the possibilities were endless!

"The first card is much stronger than a regular Strike, and it can boost subsequent damage..."

"The second card, two stacks of Vulnerable? Seems weak. I'd rather play an extra Strike..."

"The third card, 16 block? Wow, so much! But I'd have to lose 2 health. No good. Health is my lifeline..."

After a careful reading, Zhong Yi decided to take [Prepared Strike].

"Let's go again!"

Zhong Yi had already mastered the gameplay of Kill the Immortal Tower and quickly proceeded to the next room, following his pre-planned route.

This time, he encountered a group of three Sludge Monsters—what would have been called slimes in the previous life.

"Should I defend or attack..."

"Which one to hit first..."

"Damn, how do I minimize my health loss..."

As a perfectionist, Zhong Yi agonized over every move, wishing he could bring mathematical formulas into the illusion realm.

This level wasn't too difficult either. After spending some time, Zhong Yi cleared it just as easily.

"Haha! The Golden Crow bloodline healed me for 6 points. It's like I didn't take any damage! I'm amazing!"

Zhong Yi looked smugly at his health bar. After two battles, he had only lost 2 health points, feeling pretty proud of himself.

The monster dropped another two clusters of spirit energy.

This time, among the three cards, there was a blue card.

[Burn (1 spiritual energy): Gain 2 strength.]

"A blue-tier card? A power card?!"

Zhong Yi had just thought he'd fully grasped the illusion realm, but now this new thing made him happy.

He just noticed that the three cards from the previous round, as well as the 10 starting cards in his deck, were all white cards.

Color classification, thanks to Lu Ze's relentless efforts, had long been popularized in the world of immortal cultivation.

Even the remnants of the Heavenly Dao distributed rewards with treasure chests graded from gold to red, purple, and blue.

"Blue is great! I definitely want the blue one!"

Zhong Yi didn’t even bother to look at what the other two white cards were. He just slotted [Burning] straight into his deck.

After two easy back-to-back wins, Zhong Yi’s confidence surged.

“Bring it on!”

He stepped into the third battle room and faced a monster called the “Shrinking Beetle.”

That fight was simple too. Zhong Yi launched a fierce assault and cleared it without taking a single hit.

“Holy crap, another blue card?!”

The moment Zhong Yi saw the blue glow, his eyes locked on. Without a second thought, he tucked [Flame Barrier] into his collection.

“Next up is…”

“A random room?”

Zhong Yi stared at the small room marked with a question mark on the map, his heart full of anticipation.

Ever since Lu Ze’s gaming concepts had spread through the cultivation world, cultivators couldn’t resist taking a gamble on anything with a random label.

What if they turned out to be the chosen one?

Well, Zhou Yue was the exception.

“Ha! I’m not Old Zhou, so of course I’m going in to test my luck!”

Zhong Yi chuckled to himself, dismissed the shop option on the right, and walked straight into the random room.

The scene shifted in an instant—a torrential downpour in a dark, rainy night.

Zhong Yi stood on a rickety old wooden bridge.

[Random Event: The Slippery Bridge]

[As you cross a dangerously unstable wooden bridge, a sudden rainstorm strikes. Gusts of wind keep battering you, as if determined to end your journey here.]

[Option One: Cross the bridge (Remove [Burning] from your deck)]

[Option Two: Hold on a little longer (Lose 3 HP. Randomly re-roll the card shown in the option above)]

“What the hell?! I just got that blue card!!”

Zhong Yi’s eye twitched. He immediately chose Option Two.

After losing 3 HP, the card displayed changed from [Burning] to [Flame Barrier].

“You’re gunning for my blue cards, huh?! Again!”

“…[Preparation Strike] is still useful! Again!”

“[Pain Strike]… no, no, I only have one Pain Strike.”

“What the hell?? I’ve already lost 18 HP?!”

“I’m NEVER coming back to this damn room!!”