As soon as Zhong Yi's infinite combo playstyle was released, it exploded in popularity.
Lu Ze happened to be present at the time. Having experienced the era of infinite combo dominance in his past life, he naturally understood the appeal of this kind of build.
He decisively promoted Zhong Yi's livestream to the top spot across all illusion realms.
Lu Ze knew very well that among players who loved roguelike games, some sought to challenge their limits, but a large portion simply wanted to have fun and feel powerful!
The higher the ceiling of a card deck, the more enjoyable it was for this latter group.
And infinite combo was undoubtedly a playstyle with an extremely high ceiling!
Unlike those low-probability playstyles that relied on grinding for random events, infinite combo was a universal build, so its success rate was not low!
The more accessible such a build, the better it was at attracting new players and retaining veteran ones!
Lu Ze still remembered the time when "Slay the Spire II" took the world by storm.
Back then, every tutorial video had to mention infinite combo builds.
Countless players reset run after run, just to get a taste of an infinite deck.
Now, under Lu Ze's guidance, countless cultivators witnessed a jaw-dropping moment in the livestream: Zhong Yi played 900 cards in a single turn to defeat an intangible great demon, a feat that shook heaven and earth.
Instantly, the livestream's chat went wild.
[Whoa!! You can play like this??]
[Awesome!!]
[Tutorial! Give us a tutorial!!]
[Only Iron Armor Sect cultivators? Can the Broken Automaton work?]
[Is it hard? Seems like Zhong had a rough time...]
[No kidding! Look who gave him that rough time!]
...
Seeing the entire chat astonished and completely blown away, Zhong Yi felt an incredible rush.
He didn't hoard his knowledge. In the livestream, he cupped his hands toward the endless barrage of comments and said:
"Haha! Thanks for the support, fellow cultivators. I'll post the infinite combo guide on the forum later... And it's not just for Iron Armor Sect cultivators!"
...
After the livestream ended, Zhong Yi kept his promise and posted the meticulously researched infinite combo guide on the forum.
Even Lu Ze had to admire Zhong Yi's talent for strategy games.
In just three days, he had seen through the essence of infinite combos and found a viable infinite deck for every occupation.
Although Zhong Yi hadn't tested a few builds in practice and only theorized they could work, Lu Ze could tell at a glance that the theories were sound.
Zhong Yi wasn't one to speak carelessly, but when he did, he made a huge impact.
He had prepared infinite combo deck builds for all five occupations.
Since the warrior's infinite combo was the simplest to execute, he provided two versions.
For each of the other occupations, he offered one deck.
The core of each deck was cycle management and energy recovery, combined with a finishing move that fit the build.
As soon as the guide was posted, players went wild.
Why? Because infinite combos looked incredibly satisfying and tempting!
Especially for the Storage Lord's infinite combo: thanks to the Starlight mechanic, it could even achieve "reversed energy flow," where energy increased the more it was used, never running out!
And unlike other illusion realms where theory alone wasn't enough and required skill, this build allowed players to aim for an infinite combo right away, as long as they drew the core cards early.
Zhong Yi even thoughtfully prepared a list of quality transition cards for the community, practically feeding the information to players.
Overnight, casual players who had already cleared low-difficulty content and had no interest in tackling higher difficulties flocked to the infinite combo path.
Originally, the number of active players and average playtime for "The Slaying Immortal Tower" had slowed in growth.
With the promotion of infinite combos, both metrics surged once again...
As infinite combos spread among the player base, the benefits became quite substantial.
On one hand, cultivators who only wanted to play infinite combos would simply restart if they didn't draw core cards at the beginning, causing their demonic cultivation value to skyrocket.
On the other hand, players' overall skill improved, and their playtime in the illusion realms increased significantly.
In Lu Ze's past life, infinite combos were popular for less than a month before receiving repeated nerfs in the beta version.
Not only did they become much harder to assemble, but their ceiling also dropped significantly.
Lu Ze firmly believed that in roguelike games, a high ceiling bringing immense satisfaction was irreplaceable. So in this life, he decided not to remove the infinite combo playstyle.
By now, as the cultivators' understanding of climbing the tower deepened, the forum's tone began to resemble what Lu Ze remembered from his past life.
[This illusion realm is amazing! My Dao partner just broke through to the Golden Core stage, so I bought her the "The Slaying Immortal Tower" collector's crystal... She'll love it!]
[Why does a form card cost 3 energy? They're all garbage.]
[I don't care about other forms, but when I see the Ghost Form, I have to call it 'Dad, you're not dead?']
[Name the Serpent Form!]
[Serpent Form? More like Sad Form!]
[It's not as good as Snakebite.]
[Time will prove Snakebite's worth!]
[Time will prove the Broken Automaton's worth.]
[Don't insult our fifth-strongest character.]
[What did the Broken Automaton ever do to you? Just let me get it started.]
[What did the Broken Automaton ever do to you? Just let me get it sta.]
[What did the Broken Automaton ever do to you? Just let me get it.]
...
Of course, besides the factors that kept players hooked in his past life, there was a very strange reason why the playtime for "The Slaying Immortal Tower" kept rising.
Lu Ze turned to the remnant Heavenly Dao spirit beside him.
"Why are you cultivators so... weird now?"
The remnant spirit looked puzzled.
"What do you mean?"
Lu Ze replied.
"It feels like they're practically begging to die?"
The remnant spirit thought about the cultivators it had recently killed. Each one had an ecstatic expression, as if they wanted to be killed by it multiple times.
"Uh... Maybe they have a kink?"
Lu Ze struggled to suppress his laughter.
This was the "strange factor" he had been thinking about.
Although the remnant spirit played the role of the Architect, Lu Ze hadn't given it a complete form this time.
Aside from its clothes, the spirit's glowing orb, golden runes, and classic black mist hands were all its true form on display.
It had appeared openly before the mortal world more than once.
So when players encountered an Architect using black mist hands, they knew it was the Heavenly Dao remnant spirit and got more excited than usual.
After all, for ordinary cultivators, this was a rare chance to interact with the Heavenly Dao.
Dying was no big deal—it was just an illusion, not reality.
And so, many cultivators regarded "encountering the Heavenly Dao remnant spirit" as an honor. When they ran into it, they'd take screenshots and post them on the forum to show off.
Over time, even cultivators who had no interest in card games joined in just to encounter the Heavenly Dao, further boosting playtime in the illusions.
...
...
Soon.
Eight days after the release of "The Slaying Immortal Tower," and fifteen days since the first challenge proposition was launched.
The "Climbing the Tower" challenge had finally reached its deadline.
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
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."
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
