"Look, it's right up ahead."
Zhou Qiaoling pointed at the massive creature on the vast plain below the mountain, instinctively lowering her voice.
Level 38, Forest Mammoth, with a special Greater Demon icon next to its name.
"Old pal, you don't think this thing spawned at our respawn point because of you, do you?"
Zhou Qiaoling squinted, muttering under her breath.
"Bah! What's that got to do with me? You gotta know, I... uh, anyway, it's got nothing to do with me!"
Zhou Yue's face flushed slightly.
He suddenly remembered his first time playing Minecraft, when he spawned right in the middle of an ocean, and his tone became less certain.
"Alright, alright, the folks in my livestream all said others had the same thing happen. You can't blame Lao Zhou for this."
Zhong Yi quickly stepped in to smooth things over.
And indeed, that was the case.
Without tweaking the settings, the boss's spawn point was fixed.
Every player's starting path to the outside world was blocked by that Level 38 Forest Mammoth.
The design was probably a nod to the Tree Sentinel from Elden Ring.
"This big guy's level 38, and the four of us are all level 8. That adds up to 34, which is pretty close... How about we give it a shot?"
Mu Yawen stared at the Mammoth's hulking mass, her eyes gleaming with eagerness, rubbing her hands together.
"Forget for a moment that adding us up doesn't really make 34 levels... Are you sure level difference works that way?"
Zhong Yi looked at Mu Yawen with a helpless expression.
Anyone who'd played Lu Ze's Illusion Realm knew that level difference wasn't simple arithmetic.
Take Immortal Demon Clash: four players at level 4, even with similar gear, couldn't take on a level 10 opponent, let alone a level 16.
"Forget about taming it... Don't you remember what we saw earlier? That thing jumps once, and all the Pal minions nearby get wiped out?"
Zhou Yue nodded in agreement.
When they'd first encountered the Forest Mammoth, they'd indeed thought about testing its strength.
But then some wild Pal in a fight accidentally hit the Mammoth with its skill. The beast threw a tantrum, unleashed its own ability, and the whole area shook like an earthquake.
The Pals they'd spent ages fighting were all instantly killed, instantly killing their desire to pick a fight.
"That strong? Once we level up more, we've definitely gotta capture it..."
After hearing the descriptions, Zhong Yi grew even more excited about this Pal continent.
"Junior Brother Lu might act impulsively, but he never sets an unsolvable task... This Forest Mammoth might not be as dangerous as it seems. How about we scout ahead?"
Zhong Yi thought for a moment, then summoned his Mischief Cat.
After setting its behavior mode to Do Not Attack, he pointed at the Giant Vulture Statue behind the Forest Mammoth.
"You go scout ahead!"
"Meow meow meow??"
The Mischief Cat pointed a tiny paw at itself.
But since its master's orders couldn't be disobeyed, it trudged forward with a tragic look, its little legs trembling with every step.
"Left a bit, left again, yes..."
"Right! Right, right, right!"
Zhong Yi directed it step by step, finally relaxing when he saw the cat make it safely around.
"This Forest Mammoth isn't too aggressive. As long as we don't enter its warning zone, it probably won't attack us. Let's move!"
Zhong Yi waved for the others to follow.
But the three took several steps backward in unison.
"Uh-huh, that's right. Senior Brother Zhong, you go scout the path first!"
"Left a bit, left again..."
"Right, right, right!"
Zhong Yi's mouth twitched. "Damn it! You're treating me like a Pal!"
...
Zhong Yi's reasoning was correct.
In fact, in the original version of Fantasy Beast Atlas from Lu Ze's past life, most Pals didn't actively attack players.
But in this world, Lu Ze had made some adjustments. Based on the Pals' temperaments and levels, not all were docile.
Of course, on the first starting island, there were basically no overly violent Pals.
Zhong Yi took the lead, with the other three following behind, carefully skirting the edge of where the Forest Mammoth could detect them. Soon, they reached the second Giant Vulture Statue.
They touched it, and another warp point was unlocked.
Just then, the sky suddenly darkened.
Time in the Illusion Realm moved quickly, and night fell in an instant.
The previously lively Pals all drooped their eyelids, found suitable spots, and lay down to sleep on the ground.
Little bubbles appeared above all their noses, clearly indicating they were fast asleep.
"Pals can sleep, too?"
Zhou Qiaoling was astonished. She glanced at the Pot Elephant she'd just caught at her feet—it was still wide-eyed and alert.
"It looks like the Pals we tame don't rest, but the wild ones do..."
Zhong Yi analyzed, then looked toward the Forest Mammoth in the distance.
That enormous creature had also lain down on the ground, snoring deeply.
Zhou Yue instantly crafted four torches and handed one to each person. The group held up the torches and pressed on forward.
In the pitch-black night, clusters of red flames stood out sharply.
"What's this? A Fire Fox?"
"Haha! It's so obvious in the dark... Catch it, quick!"
"What's this thing on the water? A Lumir? Such a pretty little fish!"
"Ping Penguin? Staring with those big eyes, it looks hilarious, haha! Makes me want to mess with it!"
"Wow, is that a Rabbitling? It's way too cute... Be gentle, guys! Ah!! How could you kill such an adorable bunny!!"
"Hey, weren't all Pals supposed to be asleep at night? Why is this Lunari so wide awake?"
...
As the group journeyed further, they encountered more diverse types of Pals.
They captured one after another along the way, their constant sense of novelty and satisfaction warding off any fatigue.
"So dark-attributed Pals come out at night and don't sleep, is that the idea? This Pal world is getting more and more interesting!"
Zhong Yi habitually opened the Pal index, studying each newly captured Pal, getting more and more engrossed.
Normally, spiritual beasts with this kind of behavior would be considered evil affiliates of demonic paths in the cultivation world.
But in Lu Ze's unique art style, each one was more fun and lovable than the last.
Before they knew it, dawn had arrived.
As a ray of sunlight fell through the forest, the Pals sleeping nearby all roused and started their daily lives.
"Lao Zhong, should we head back first? We've only got a few Pal balls left, and I think it's time to swap out the Pals in our team!"
Zhou Yue suggested.
Each person could only carry five Pals at once, so all the ones they'd caught the previous night had been sent back to the Pal terminal.
Zhou Yue couldn't wait to go back to the base.
When they'd been capturing Pals last night, he'd immediately taken a liking to the fire-attributed Fire Fox.
In real life, Zhou Yue specialized in fire magic, and the Fire Fox's flame skills dealt respectable damage. It suited his style perfectly.
"Yeah, time to head back."
Zhong Yi nodded without hesitation.
It wasn't just the Pals that needed swapping; the base needed upgrading, too.
Over the course of the night, he'd captured many new Pals, raising his level by three and unlocking a host of new skills.
The new structures needed for base upgrades could now be built.
The three climbed to the hilltop and gazed into the distance for a long while. The nearest teleportation point appeared to be on a distant mountain peak. Behind that massive statue of a giant vulture stood a towering spire that pierced the clouds.
"A tall tower is the key..."
Zhong Yi murmured, recalling the hint he had seen upon first entering the illusion. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he pointed at the towering spire, saying,
"Could this tower be the very key to the illusion!?"
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."
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
nto another world, I bought a slave for the first time, never expecting the silver wolf girl to be so cute... Lin Feng: I know it's cold, but you don't have to sneak into my bed! Yuna: Just sharing body warmth, if you dare do anything naughty, I'll definitely...
