The 749 cultivators who had participated in designing the challenge all returned to their respective Illusion Towers.
The method of comparing results was simple: the cultivators, in order of their registration numbers, each revealed their backend data one by one.
As the first registered contestant, Number 1, Han Xian, proudly displayed his data in the air.
Instantly, a few massive rows of numbers appeared above Illusion Tower Number One.
[Number: 1]
[Illusion Master: Han Xian (Qingshan Sect)]
[Illusion: "The Exquisite Tower Wonderland"]
[Total Players: 141,933]
[Total Playtime: 2,904,921 hours]
As soon as this data was revealed, it caused an uproar among the crowd gathered by the lake.
"This... this is insane?"
"140,000 cultivators experienced it? That number can only be matched by 'The Immortal Abyss Operation,' right?"
"Did I read that playtime correctly? Nearly three million hours?"
"'The Exquisite Tower Wonderland' has only been out for 11 days—that means on average, each person spent almost 2 hours per day inside it!"
"With numbers like that, even Old Demon Lu can't win, right?"
"Looks like Old Demon Lu is about to get a beating."
"It's not just a beating... They all said earlier, 'Don't hold back.'"
"Don't hold back? If they don't hold back, Old Demon Lu might actually die here!"
"Without being able to use magical artifacts for defense... at the very least, his foundation would be damaged."
"Could it be that the great Illusion Master is about to fall here today?"
...
As the data from other contestants was revealed one by one, this kind of discussion became more and more dominant.
Because the data from "The Exquisite Tower Wonderland" was overwhelmingly superior!
Whether it was the number of players or the average daily playtime, it crushed every subsequent Illusion!
In the past, whenever Lu Ze released a new Illusion, he would send out announcements through all his existing Illusions.
But this time, due to the rules, there was no notification, so his popularity definitely wouldn't be as explosively massive as "The Immortal Abyss Operation."
Furthermore,
What was the difficulty level of "The Immortal Abyss Operation" compared to "The Killing Immortal Tower"?
Even with Lu Ze's huge player base, the cultivators thought he would at most be on the same level as "The Exquisite Tower Wonderland," both in the 100,000-player range.
But given that "The Exquisite Tower Wonderland" had an extra three days of release time!
This was a chasm that was impossible to cross!
While everyone looked on with schadenfreude, anticipating witnessing the fall of a legend, the turn finally came to Lu Ze.
Lu Ze smiled calmly and lightly clapped his hands. The backend data of "The Killing Immortal Tower" slowly materialized.
[Number: 749]
[Illusion Master: Lu Ze]
[Illusion: "The Killing Immortal Tower"]
[Total Players: 228,763]
[Total Playtime: 7,636,591 hours]
"The Exquisite Tower Wonderland," which had just held the top spot, was instantly knocked down to second place.
Staring at the absurdly high numbers of players and playtime, every cultivator present doubted their own eyes.
"How many?? Seven... seven million hours?!"
"It's almost eight million!"
"If you average it out... each person spent over four hours a day in there?! How is that possible?!"
"There are only twelve hours in a day—how could anyone spend that much time on a card-game Illusion?"
"Isn't there some kind of error?"
"Shh... this is the tally of the Heavenly Dao. Watch your words!"
...
As exaggerated as this data seemed, it was actually very realistic.
If the timeline were stretched out longer, the average playtime might not be as high.
But for just the first week, "The Killing Immortal Tower" was absolutely unbeatable!
Because the most addictive period for a roguelike game is those first few days when you're just learning it.
Players in his previous life still had to eat and sleep, but cultivators didn't!
Someone like Zhong Yi could easily spend 20 hours a day inside the Tower studying card decks.
Hardcore players had given the average playtime a massive boost!
"No... impossible! This data must be fraudulent!"
Han Xian shook his head frantically, refusing to believe it.
He knew the quality of "The Exquisite Tower Wonderland" better than anyone.
Only with the covert promotion of the Illusion Alliance could such an Illusion attract 140,000 cultivators. What right did a card-game Illusion have to surpass that by nearly 100,000?
And the playtime gap was a crushing victory...
The combined total of the other 748 Illusions was less than half of "The Killing Immortal Tower"!
The only thing he could think of was that Lu Ze had colluded with the Heavenly Dao to falsify the data.
"I request an inspec—"
"Silence!"
Just as Han Xian's words reached his throat, they were forcefully suppressed by an overwhelming pressure.
Rakshasa shot him a glare.
Although Rakshasa himself couldn't bring himself to believe that the data was real, Heart Demon had repeatedly stressed that, no matter the circumstances, they must never question the Heavenly Dao.
So naturally, he wouldn't allow Han Xian to make such a foolish mistake.
What if it came out that this Illusion wasn't solely created by Han Xian, or even that 20,000 of those 140,000 players were paid actors hired by the Illusion Alliance?
No one could guarantee what that temperamental Heavenly Dao would do then.
With that thought, Rakshasa cleared his throat, suppressed the unwillingness in his heart, and announced:
"The data is correct..."
"Lu Ze wins this challenge."
"The second challenge will be announced tomorrow at noon!"
With that, Rakshasa flicked his sleeves and left.
"Brother Han, is our bet still on?"
Lu Ze smiled as he picked up the spiritual contract from earlier and walked over to Han Xian.
Han Xian clenched his fists tightly, then suddenly let out a sinister laugh: "Of course it is."
Lu Ze raised an eyebrow:
"No magical artifacts?"
"No magical artifacts."
"No holding back?"
"No holding back."
Han Xian was brimming with confidence.
In fact, he had already mentally devised a vicious strategy.
He was an entire major cultivation realm higher than Lu Ze—why would he need any magical artifacts?
The cultivation technique he practiced was extremely insidious. If his opponent's strength wasn't sufficient, all their attacks would be rebounded back at them.
He had already envisioned the scene: Lu Ze would strike with all his might, only to be wounded by his own attack.
Wouldn't that be an even greater humiliation?
Having settled that thought, he puffed out his chest, laid down a few defensive spells around himself, and then taunted:
"Come on, hit me as hard as you can. Don't hold back with me—I don't want to be accused of bullying."
"You asked for it..."
Lu Ze blinked and flexed his hand.
The next moment, he struck with zero warning—
"Goo... puh—!!!"
Before Han Xian could even finish his sentence, let alone see Lu Ze's movements, an absolutely terrifying pressure slammed into him. Blood instantly sprayed from his mouth and nose.
Fast.
Too fast.
He couldn't even see it, and his primordial spirit was already knocked out of his body, watching helplessly as his physical form flew backward like a kite with a broken string!
Countless dense cracks appeared in his primordial spirit, and then he knew nothing more.
Lu Ze shook his head with a somewhat innocent expression.
"Uh... wasn't he fragile?"
...
...
Deep inside Xianyun Manor, in the Pavilion of the Skies.
"Outrageous... this is absolutely outrageous!"
"He has crippled my disciple!!"
Rakshasa paced furiously back and forth in the hall, radiating terrifying killing intent.
He had long known about the bet between Lu Ze and Han Xian.
But what he never expected was that Lu Ze, who was at the Nascent Soul stage, would defeat Han Xian, a god-level Deity Transformation cultivator, with just one slap, severely injuring him!
The physical wounds were manageable, but Han Xian’s soul had been damaged so badly that he could never dabble in the Dao of Illusions again…
“Chief, if this keeps up, we’re bound to lose…”
Blood Crow furrowed his brow.
Now that Lu Ze had taken the first round and the elders had no hope of seizing the Transcendent Soul Crystal, they tacitly united on the same side.
Their goal now was to figure out how to stop Lu Ze from winning three rounds and taking the Transcendent Soul Crystal.
“Losing the first challenge doesn’t matter,” Heart Demon said slowly.
“Elders, what do you all think gives Lu Ze his successive victories?”
“Heaven’s Dao?”
The four answered without hesitation, blurting it out together.
This was a consensus.
In the eyes of the world, Lu Ze had risen step by step to where he was today solely by forging a bond with Heaven’s Dao.
Some even secretly believed that the outrageous data in the Slaying Immortal Tower had been tampered with behind the scenes by the remnant spirit of Heaven’s Dao, just to support Lu Ze.
Not to mention that Heaven’s Dao even made cameo appearances in Lu Ze’s illusions—like the architect in the Slaying Immortal Tower.
How many cultivators willingly endured torment in the Tower just to catch a glimpse of Heaven’s Dao’s remnant spirit?
Without Heaven’s Dao, Lu Ze’s strength would be at least halved!
“Exactly,” Heart Demon said, the corners of his mouth curling slightly upward.
“So, in the next challenge…”
“If we can isolate Heaven’s Dao, victory will be ours for sure!”
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?!
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
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?
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!
