“Alliance Leader, what do you mean by ‘direction’...?”
The Spirit Crane steadied the breath that had been forced to its limit by the Four Symbols Formation of Heaven and Earth, then spoke in a hoarse voice.
“Lu Ze’s fortune must be severed... even if only once.”
The Heart Demon’s voice was resolute and cold.
Each activation of the Four Symbols Formation of Heaven and Earth, and each deduction of information, inflicted immense damage on the Heavenly Spirit Physique at the formation’s core.
The Heart Demon knew that this deduction would be the last. As such, the questions it asked were exceptionally difficult.
Why was it impossible to deduce the technique that controlled the direction of Lu Ze’s illusions?
How did Lu Ze’s illusions so easily break through a cultivator’s emotions?
Why did Lu Ze’s cultivation rise so rapidly...?
Every question sank into the sea without a response.
It could not see through them.
It had even nearly triggered a backlash.
In other words, the answers to these questions all involved powers on the level of the Heavenly Dao.
The Heart Demon was puzzled. Although the remnant spirit of the Heavenly Dao originated from the same source as the Heavenly Dao itself, its power was ultimately limited.
Yet Lu Ze, who was connected to it, was involved in karmic ties of such a level at every turn. It was truly unfathomable.
The Heart Demon reached a conclusion:
The remnant spirit of the Heavenly Dao had recovered far more quickly than the outside world imagined.
Otherwise, Lu Ze could never have become entangled in such an enormous web of karma.
This conclusion was undoubtedly despairing.
Seeing that the energy of the Heavenly Spirit Physique was about to run out, the Heart Demon, in a state of utter hopelessness, posed one final question:
“We have exhausted every possible scheme to make Lu Ze fail... Is there any point to it?”
This question finally received an answer.
“It matters.”
A cold smile touched the corners of the Heart Demon’s lips. It raised its head toward the sky, its gaze seemingly trying to pierce through the clouds and see the invisible hand behind them.
“Lu Ze is now using the Dao of Illusions to resolve the karma of the remnant spirit of the Heavenly Dao and open up an entire avenue of the Great Dao...”
“Once the remnant spirit of the Heavenly Dao fully recovers, it will merge into the Heavenly Dao itself. At that time, all the friendship between it and Lu Ze will turn to nothing.”
“Those who earn the attention of the Heavenly Dao will be the ones who rule the world.”
“So our direction all along—to make Lu Ze fail and sever his fortune—has always been correct.”
“We must contend for first place.”
After the Heart Demon finished speaking, the four elders looked at one another, bitterness spreading through their eyes.
Who did not understand this reasoning?
Was it that they did not want to win?
That they did not want to see Lu Ze suffer a setback?
That they did not want to gain the attention of the remnant spirit of the Heavenly Dao?
Did they actually enjoy having Lu Ze’s shoe planted on their faces?
Hell no—they simply couldn’t outplay Lu Ze!!
“Alliance Leader... In terms of illusion-crafting techniques, we naturally aren’t inferior to some junior like him...”
Blood Crow stepped forward with a bitter smile.
“It’s just that the ideas that brat comes up with are simply too unexpected...”
The moment he said this, the other three elders immediately voiced their agreement.
“Elder Blood Crow is right. We didn’t lose because of strength... We lost entirely to that brat’s tricks for manipulating the human heart!”
“If we could know his ideas in advance, the illusions we created might not be inferior to his!”
“Sigh... If we weren’t competing over clever ideas and were only comparing strength, how could we, powerful cultivators, possibly be toyed with by some junior!?”
...
The Heart Demon stood high above the four of them, looking down at the group.
Only after a long while did it slowly speak.
“You have always been operating within the rules defined by Lu Ze. Naturally, you are no match for him.”
Rakshasa was confused.
“What does the Alliance Leader mean...?”
“Lu Ze’s ideas are all based on isolating cultivation and then establishing a new set of rules for the world. We have no need to continue entangling ourselves in those rules.”
Rakshasa was even more puzzled.
“Illusions that don’t isolate cultivation... We tried that from the very beginning, but every attempt ended in utter defeat!”
As high-level cultivators, Rakshasa and the others had initially been completely unwilling to accept Lu Ze’s rule of isolating cultivation.
They had worked so hard to cultivate. Being strong was only natural, and crushing the weak was only natural as well.
Yet inside an illusion, everyone had the same starting panel?
Could a Soul Formation cultivator lose to someone in the Qi Refining stage?
They had scoffed at the idea. When they first experimented with creating illusions, they arrogantly used their own rules.
The result was that not a single attempt succeeded.
If cultivation was carried into the illusion, then how was anything inside it different from reality?
Before absolute strength, the rules they established were nothing more than a flimsy sheet of paper.
When high-level cultivators entered the illusions, they could not understand the point of them at all. Meanwhile, low-level cultivators were casually crushed to death inside.
The result was that the low-level cultivators found them boring, and the high-level cultivators found them boring too. In the end, everyone went to Lu Ze’s illusions instead.
“What I mean by contending for first place doesn’t necessarily mean truly defeating Lu Ze.”
The Heart Demon spoke indifferently.
“If we take first place in a field where Lu Ze cannot interfere, wouldn’t that still count as first place?”
“The Alliance Leader means...?”
“Lu Ze always uses isolated cultivation as the rule for creating his illusions. That’s simply because he isn’t proficient in actual techniques and the Dao. We can make an issue of that.”
The Heart Demon let out a cold laugh, clearly having formed a new scheme in its heart.
“Where there is no benefit, no one will take action. Without the lure of Voidspirit Crystals, he most likely won’t interfere rashly...”
“Even if he intends to make an enemy of the Illusion Alliance, once the matter involves a field he isn’t proficient in, even Lu Ze will probably have to think twice.”
“If he truly dares to come...”
Under the mask, a fierce glint suddenly appeared in the Heart Demon’s hollow eye sockets.
“Then we naturally won’t pass up the chance to defeat a master of illusions of his generation...”
The Heart Demon had temporarily set aside the current struggle.
The remnant spirit of the Heavenly Dao was destined to be only a short-term investment.
Once it recovered, earning the attention of the Heavenly Dao would be the more far-reaching plan.
From this moment onward, they had to break through Lu Ze’s monopoly and his position of unrivaled dominance.
The Illusion Alliance had to win.
No matter what form that victory took, they had to secure a place in people’s hearts.
“The techniques and the Dao...”
Blood Crow stroked his chin, repeatedly mulling over every word the Heart Demon had spoken.
“What kind of technique or Dao could make that brat shrink back?”
“I’ve heard that Lu Ze has spent most of his time staying within his sect and has only participated in one actual secret-realm battle.”
“I know about that. He was ambushed by demonic cultivators and even killed one of them. According to information from my informants, traces of thunder techniques were left behind. Perhaps Zhao Wendao secretly taught him some thunder arts.”
“The last time he acted at Leisure Cloud Manor, he shattered a Soul Formation disciple’s spirit with a single palm strike... He probably knows some martial techniques as well.”
...
The four of them discussed the matter for a long time, making all kinds of assessments of Lu Ze’s strength.
They eventually reached a conclusion:
“The Sword Dao.”
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?!
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
] [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!
